Crimson Transparencies
by Hans Gonk
Summary: In 2001, the Lin Kuei ambushed the Kisaragi clan to find out that the legendary ninja Scorpion, has been resurrected. The mysterious organization, NESTS is interested in the resurrected ninja. However, Eiji Kisaragi and the current Sub-Zero suspect that NESTS is plotting something devious, and seek answers to find out their motives.
1. Chapter 1

April 3rd, 1863, Niigata, Japan, night time. A Japanese man with a white coat with a large collars, with a large cravat, a blue shirt under it, and white pants and a bindi on his forehead is in a cramped office, where he's sitting between two large bookshelf on the sides, and a desk in front of The man is writing a document at his desk, the only sources of light, are from the moon shining behind through the window, and a candle next to his documents. At the opposite end of the office, a facial-haired teenage boy, in a late edo period japan robes, opens the door half way, and peaks out. Kagami stops writing and looks at the boy.  
"Mr. Shinnosuke," said the teenage boy to the Japanese man, "he's here."

"How far is he from the docks?" asked Shinnosuke

"From last I saw, four kilometers."

Shinnosuke stands up from his desk, "Alright, light the torches,. If he already set sail, tell him I'm on my way."  
"Will do sir!"

The dock contains a long wooden path, for every foot, there's a large wooden pole to set sail in. The only pole that is centered is the one at the end of the dock. While the full moon brightly lights over the ocean, the dock is only being reflected slightly by the moon's light. The dock quickly glowed a dark yellow when thirty two japanese soldiers rush in with torches, with sixteen on one side, sixteen on the other. Shinnosuke walks along the wooden path with two tall soldiers carrying muskets by his side. Shinnosuke and the two soldiers stopped at the center-end of the dock, and see a single man rowing a large wooden canoe by himself.

The man on the canoe has pale skin with frost coming out of his body, his eyes lack pupils or irises. Most of his face concealed in a black steel helmet with a silver rim, with 3 merged horns at the top front of the helmet a mask that covers his nose and mouth, that has a turquoise rim that forms three rectangles that is filled with metallic nets. His outer torso is a sleeveless blue gi with a fur collar behind the man's neck. Under it, is a mesh shirt that is also a loin cloth, and under the mesh shirt is a tight, sleeveless black tank top. All of this is held, along with his black fisherman's pants, is with a large black belt, with a large buckle that has a metallic mold of a dragon's face in the center. The same mold is on the black shoulder pads that are tied just right under his shoulder. Under his shoulder pads, are long tight gloves, that have metal armor on the top of his hands, and boots, where his fisherman pants are tucked in.

Shinnosuke looks at the ink drawing portrait, and looks at the man in the canoe. The man in the canoe brings out a rope and ties it to the middle wooden pole. Kagami and the two soldiers take a few steps back, and the man on the canoe does a front flip to the dock. When he he lands, he's crouching down, looking at the ground, and he suddenly looks forward, and stands up looking at Shinnosuke, with his arms crossed.

"Are you my client," asked the man on the canoe "Shinnosuke Kagami?"

"Indeed," answered Shinnosuke, "and you must be Sub-Zero."

The man from the canoe looks at his own body, "No shit. You have my payment prepared, right?" The soldier left of Kagami, brings out a large black sack that's tied with a man unties it showing what's inside to Sub-Zero.

"This here, contains Finnish markkas, pound sterlings, and our silver bu and shu. One thousand each."

"Now we're talking."

"There is more to the deal." The man next to Kagami ties the sack and puts it in his robe. Come," the two men turn to the other side. "We'll discuss it on the way to my base."

The two men lead to them to the base, Sub-Zero and Kagami walk together, side-by-side. Once Kagami starts walking, the men start to exit the docs, and light out their torches.

"I noticed that you were the only one rowing your boat." recalled Kagami as he looks at Sub-Zero. "Did you really row from Northern China to here?"

"Hell no!" answered Sub-Zero, "I had two other guys rowing, but halfway through the sail, they started bitching and whining about food, so I killed them."

"That attitude will not be acceptable in the mission."

"Don't worry, I hired those guys. I'll give you fellatio if you want."

Kagami furrowed his eyebrows in disgust, and looks at the ground briefly and lets out an exasperated sigh. At the end of the docks, is a small foliage of trees and bushes, which behind, is a symmetrical, Momoyama period palace, that's five feet tall. The walls are white, and the roof tiles are black. Kagami enters in his palace first, and Sub-Zero follows behind. Inside is a large wide room, with paper thin walls, with a wooden frame to hold them together. In the center of the room is an oil painting of Kagami and the Viscount Palmerston shaking hands, a large european style table and chairs made out of a dark wood material, and two sets of stairs at the ends of the room. The room is lit up with two long torches that are a few inches away from the cases of stairs. Kagami takes a seat at the table. He gestures his hand to Sub-Zero, offering him to sit. Sub-Zero also takes a seat, and puts his feet on the table. Kagami furrowed his brows again staring at Sub-Zero. Even without pupils or irises, Sub-Zero clearly rolled his eyes and takes his feet off the table. An indian woman in a pink and light green flowery kimono carrying a british tea set and lays it on the table. She sets a cup for Kagami and for Sub-Zero, and pours tea in each. Sub-Zero is about to smack the Indian woman's posterior. Kagami sips his tea.

"I take it," Kagami sarcastically assumed, "you have a fondness of my wife…" Sub-Zero halts his action and puts his hands on his lap. The Indian woman scowls at Sub-Zero as she walks off.

"So. What is this about being more to the deal?" asked Sub-Zero.

"Your home country has a bit of trouble that's been going on for a while. At least from what I've been told."

"Yeah, and what else is new?" Sub-Zero crosses his arms.

"Your superior, Sektor Chang, told me that you had relatives killed in the Taiping Rebellion. Is that correct?" Sub-Zero looks at the entrance a bit, and nods his head a bit.

"Yeah. Yeah." Sub-Zero looked at Kagami with a more angered expression "What about it? Will you just get on with the damn point!?"

"I have empathy, no matter how much of a man you are, losing your mother at a young age is never something easy to cope with. Considering you are the seventh Sub-Zero, the fifth in a bloodline, you have a wife and child?"

"What adult doesn't have one? Plus, I'm thirty. I'm certain it' sa normal age to lose one's mother! I'm not a child!"

"Relax Sub-Zero. Regardless, let me ask you a few questions. Do you want your family to live in the freezing lands, and have your son go through barbaric training regimes? Don't you want your child to have a proper education?"

"I get it!" Sub-Zero bounds table, causing a bit of his tea to spill, "I don't want my family to go to shit, how much longer must you meander the point!?"

"Listen," Kagami takes a small piece of cloth from his collar and wipes the tea stain, "this is your most important mission yet. If you do the job well I can make you a Japanese citizen. I can grant you land, offer you free Japanese lessons, not just for you, but for your family as well. Right now that can't be guaranteed. I am at war with our Emperor, Komei, and if he wins this war, this can't be done. I'm actually quite thankful you're alive, I had to get involved with several naval wars to ensure your safety." A lady in edo-period clothing approaches the two. Kagami hands her the cloth he was using, and she takes it and walks off.

"Shit," Sub-Zero loosens his muscles and leans back on his chair, "you weren't joking about the whole xenophobic ordeal. Well, uh, thanks. But, what i find weird, is that it seems like you're banking of me to win the war."

"I have everything set in motion to win. But there is only one problem. One obstacle that stands in my way for total domination of Japan. Emperor Komei's Shogunate has a monopoly of the ninjas. Most people assume that I hate my own country. That isn't the case at all, I'm not xenophobic is my thing. I think we should let foreigners into our nation, we should welcome them, not treat them like monsters just because of their eyes, or the color of their skin or hair! Each country its own innovations, and we should learn from them, we ourselves can evolve, and become stronger! But I'm getting ahead of myself, I will admit, we have the best espionage. No espionage is better than the Shirai-Ryu and the Kisaragi! They are masters of stealth, and traps."

"So why not, like, buy them to get them on your side?"

"Contrary to popular belief, the ninja are very honorable. Money won't buy them."

"But why the Lin Kuei? We're talented, but I think you're covered here."

"The Lin Kuei are the closest I can think of to counter-attack the ninja. Both are very similar, but I recall correctly they use weapons and warrior practices from the Mongols, Turks, and British, it isn't completely Chinese."

"The Lin Kuei has Japanese roots as well."

"Hm, really? Do tell."

"The Lin Kuei was founded by, well, Lin Kuei. He had a dream of forming an international assassination clan, and he and his turkish son-in-law, Altan Sektor, would learn different assassination tactics from all over the world, and since then it has spread throughout the generations. Right now, our quarters are in China, Poland, and Jamaica."

"Where do the Cryomancers play into all of this?"

"The Cryomancers came to be, when the northern shaolin monks took a pilgrimage at the inuit tribes, and spread their word. The Inuits who were interested went with the Shaolin Monks back in China, and the monks noticed that when they attempted the art of one of practices of qi, they end up utilizing these freezing powers. It wasn't qi though."

"Oh? Then what was it?"

"Magic. Perhaps Magic with some assistance of qi, but qi doesn't grant you elemental powers. Those guys just happened to know magic, and they taught it to the monks in the northern region. However, my ancestor, the first Sub-Zero was one of those monks, and hated them. He was always against the ideas of not being time with friends or family, and letting go of temptations. He wanted to use his powers for profit, so he joins the Lin Kuei, when Altan Sektor's son, Sektor Song-Xue, was in charge."

"Fascinating, and your family are the only Cryomancers in the clan?"

"No, other Cryomancers followed my ancestor's footsteps. But." Sub-Zero looks at the ground and grabs his thighs. "As much as I love to tell you our clan's history," he look sat Kagami, "You have a plan in mind to take out those Ninjas?"

"The Admirals will give you a debriefing tomorrow. You'll be put in charge on some of our men, you can have as many as you like." Sub Zero covers the rim of his mouth with left hand, and pulls down his mask with his right. With his right hand, he sips some tea, and puts his mask on.

"Make it fifteen men."

"Fifteen!?"

"Make them all archers; snipers, and all mounted on horses."

"What about our musket and pistol infantry?"

"Muskets take too long, unless you got some guys with pistols, then screw the archers. Bring in those guys! "

"I haven't even debriefed yet! What makes you so certain that's what you need?"

"We're going to make a few sacrifices.", Kagami eyes bulged in anger, and confusion, having trouble to utter any words in regards on what he just said. A middle age caucasian man in British Victorian military uniform walks up to Kagami.

"Sir," said the middle age man as he lean towards him, "let's at least follow his plan for one mission. He is the greatest assassin in all of China."

"Yeah," Sub-Zero responded, "just get in the lower ranked men. Believe me. My plan, regardless what you got concocted, is going to work." Kagami, didn't respond right away, slowly calming down.

"Do you need a pistol yourself?" asked Kagami as he sighed.

"Of course not." Sub-Zero puts his palms together and as he slowly separates them, as sword made of ice, is made. He lifts his ice sword and chops it on the table slicing it in two. "I got my weapon!", Kagami is just awestruck and angry on what just happened. "HEY!" Sub-Zero points his sword at the British soldier. "Puppy eyes! Show me to my bunker! I need a good night sleep."

"Uh," the British Soldier is unsure what to do. He looks at Kagami, which he closes his eyes and made a hand gesture. "Uh, right away, Master Sub-Zero." the British soldier leads Sub-Zero to the stairs. Sub-Zero goes down a bit and peaks at Kagami.  
"Hey," asked Sub-Zero "there's hookers around here right?" Kagami sighs

"Yes." answered Kagami  
" _Niiiice!"_ Sub Zero marches upstairs.

April 6th, 1863, Northern Edo, Dawn. A large dim room, only let by two tall torches, where man in a large yellow vest, and a black gi under it. He also dawns a black hood, and a yellow skull mask hiding his face.

"Report!" yelled the skull mask man.

Suddenly, a row of four ninjas appear right in front of him. They all wear the same clothing blacks, sleeveless black clothing, but they all sport a vest with yellow padding, a yellow loincloth, and yellow masks covering their mouths and nose.

"We haven't been too involved," said the ninja from the very left, "There is still a lot of aggressive fighting, between enemy daimyo and Komei's forces." Each ninja makes a report on recent events regarding certain areas they're surveying.

"Hm…" murmured the skull mask man. "Where's Musashi?"

The ninjas looked at eachother confused. They suddenly looked behind them, when two ninja in their uniform walk in. One ninja has his arm missing, several arrows all over his body, and is yelling intangible screams. The other ninja is helping him walk.

"Master Hanzo!" yelled the assisting ninja at the skull mask man, "Musashi got his tongue ripped out! He needs pen and paper!"

"Bring him here right away!" yelled Master Hanzo, the skull mask man.

The four ninjas step aside, two of them teleport away, and teleport back, one carrying paper, the other ink and a brush. They lay the paper, brush, and bowl of ink on the floor, and the Assisting Ninja carefully lays Muashi, the one arm ninja, on the floor. Muashi, on his belly, struggles to lift the brush, and dabbing it into the ink, and starts crying. He jitters as he writes, "Beware. Ice-Man. Killed fifteen of own men. Let me lived to warn you." After Muashi finishes writing, he yells out at the top of his lungs that he's sorry, and instantly brings out a kunai stabbing himself in the belly, and slicing it across twice blood sprays everywhere, even on Hanzo. Musashi falls to his death. Hattori crawls picks up the paper, and turns it to where he can read it. He slams the paper on the floor, and stands up.

"So Shinnosuke finally did it…" said Master Hanzo, "He has gotten the Lin Kuei involved…"

"Who are the Lin Kuei master?" asked one of the ninjas

"Traitors to the Shirai Ryu… My ancestor has taught, the founder of the Lin Kuei our assasination arts. The Shirai Ryu's arts are solely made to protect the emperor, but they do it for monetary gain like the rest of the fallen Ninja clans!" Hanzo looks at the assisting ninja, "How far are they from our village?"

"From what I could understand from Musashi." said the assisting Ninja "16 kilometers. Sixteen men on horses, fifteen of them with miniature muskets."

"They're getting close to my grandson. Scorpion. If he can't stop the Ice-man, Sub-Zero. We're doomed."

"Sir," called one of the ninjas, "not to be rude, but what about the Shiranui? The founder of the clan is Kanzo, the brother of your ancestor and founder of this clan, Hanzo Shinzo. Surely his descendent, Master Shiranui and his children might be able to stand a chance. You and him are descended from the mighty Hanzo Hattori.

"True," Master Hanzo starts to pace, "while the Shiranui are an impressive clan, Kanzo did not make a promise to protect the emperor. They have enough honor to not side with the foreigners, they remain a neutral stance." Master Hanzo stands center, "While I will always love my son Kaito, he is nowhere near mightier than his son Hasashi. Kaito lived up until he was nineteen, when Hasashi was only Three. Hasashi is currently twenty-three, his abilities are far greater than any other Ninja I have ever seen, definitely on par with Kisaragi Zantetsu. If he dies… We lose…"

Sub-Zero and his fifteen men, ride their horses through the thick forests. The trees are thin, but the branches are long, with luscious leaves providing a good shade. As they get deeper the leaves get thicker, and thicker, the trees get closer each other, and within a few yards the forest essentially becomes a tunnel, with very little sunlight beaming through.

"Men," alerted Sub-Zero, "we're in a trap."

"What!?" yelled one of the men, "You led us to a trap!"

"I didn't know until I realized how this forest was set up." Sub-Zero points up "Notice how the trees are set up! These bastards are good farmers. Just keep on your damn toes, and readied your pistols!" the men bring out from the their gis.

As they slowly march their horses, several of the ninja in yellow-padded vests silently sneak them from above the trees, hiding in the foliage. Suddenly, one of Sub-Zero's men gets stabbed in the back by a kunai with rope attached to it from above, and quickly gets pulled up. Nobody noticed, until blood starts dripping on the head of Sub-Zero's horse.

"Oh boy," said Sub-Zero he signals his men to halt. Sub-Zero hears very faint rustling, in the same direction where his horse's ear is pointing.

A decapitated head of the man that was taken falls down in front of Sub-Zero's horse, which scared the horse as it neighed loudly.  
"We need to retreat!" yelled one of the men hysterically

"No." Sub-Zero mumbled, "WE GO ONWARD!"

Sub Zero sprints his horse through the tunnel, as well as the other men. Three of them are taken away by rope. Sub-Zero pays attention his horse's ears. Wherever they're pointing, Sub-Zero points in that direction.

"Shoot there!" ordered Sub-Zero. One the men fires and a ninja falls from the the roof of trees. "Pay attention to your horse's ears!" Upon the men doing this, two more ninjas are shot.

After the three kilometer dash. They enter in a dome of thick trees surrounding the area, that contains a three-meter radius size hole on the top, giving off some sunlight. There are only five small buildings around the area. Sub-Zero and his men don't move once entering. Sub-Zero surveys the area, slowly looking from left to right, and he heard a faint sound, of a child saying "father…"

Inside one of the houses, a woman is lying in bed coughing. A man in knees next to her is carefully giving her hot tea as little boy next to him watches. The man giving the woman tea, is wearing a black hood, and scarf, with a golden mask covering his nose and mouth, also sports golden strips of cloth across his torso, that's over his black gi. He also has Black scale shoulder pads, with golden lining, and heavily strapped black bands covering his forearms, and feet, where the armor of his forearms and shins, have a similar aesthetic to his shoulder pads. He has two katanas tied to his back.  
"Father," called the little boy to the man as he tugs his pants, "will mommy be okay?"

"She will son" the man answered, "after I give her this tea daily. She will be cured."

"Can kissing her cure her?"

"No, no…" the man chuckled, "infact, you may get her illness if you do that." Suddenly a ninja of seemingly African descent appears behind the man, wearing Shirai-Ryu uniform. When he speaks, he's actually of Jamaican descent.

"Scorpion," the Jamaican ninja called to the man taking care of his wife

"Can't you see I'm busy curing my wife Keon Cyrax?" the man responded without looking at him.

"This is urgent! There's a powerful warrior with ice powers invaded our village! He has twelve men with him all armed with pistols, and took out three of our men!"

"What!?" Scorpion quickly stands up and turns to Keon "Is he here!?.

"He's right at the entrance. We're about to launch the assault. Get ready."  
"Understood." Scorpion quickly kneels down toward his wife, "My dear, I will be back.", his wife coughs aggressively.

"I-I understand... " Scorpion's Wife responds

Back outside, Sub-Zero moves his horse one step, and suddenly a barrage of smoke bombs landed around him and his men, some of them being real bombs.

Scorpion hears the explosives, and brings out his katana, and rushes outside, slowly approaching the smoke.

Within the smoke, horses panicked, some of riders fell, some of the horses and men are hit by the explosives, leaving their body parts everywhere. The men turn around in different directions aiming their pistols. Some of them pulled in by roped kunai, and others are sneaked behind by the ninjas, getting their throats slit. For two minutes, the smoke still hasn't dissolved, the ninjas go in, and observe.

"Why isn't the smoke dissolving?" wondered one of the ninjas. "It should've dissolved by now!" The ninjas start shivering.

"Wait," said another one of the ninjas, "this isn't smoke, it's- **FROST!** "

The ninjas all start to have their body parts frozen in ice, some are struggling to escape. Scorpion, waits outside the smoke, and when it dissolved, all the ninjas are wet are chopped into different pieces, and some of their organs are torn out. Scorpion is taken aback by this sight, and bumps into someone behind him. He jumps forward and turns around, and sees Sub-Zero crossing his arms.

"So," said Sub-Zero, "you must be the badass of this pathetic clan."

"You…" Scorpion said breahting heavily, "You did this!?" Sub-Zero looks at his body.

"What do you think?"

"Wait, I heard of you… You're Sub-Zero!" Scorpion's expression becomes more aggressive, "A member of one of the greatest traitors of the Shirai-Ryu!"

"You can thank your ancestor for helping us!" Sub-Zero points to the desecrated ninjas.

"I have enough of your foul words!" Scorpion charges at Sub-Zero, lunging his Katana toward him.

Sub-Zero starts forming an orb of ice, and lunges it at Scorpion. The orb of ice didn't hit him since Scorpion isn't there in front of Sub-Zero. Scorpion suddenly appears behind Sub-Zero, sucker punching him in the back of his head. Sub-Zero stumbles a bit, trying to process what happened, and then Scorpion performs a flurry of teleports, hitting Sub-Zero with a barrage of punches and kicks, at different sides of Sub-Zero's body. Scorpion's next teleportation attack, has him bringing out his Katana, attempting to chop Sub-Zero, but in the nick of time, Sub-Zero finally realizes what Scorpion is doing, and quickly makes his ice blade, and guards the incoming chop. When Scorpion's katana hacks Sub-Zero's ice blade, the the ice of Sub-Zero's blade makes a knot around Scorpion's katana, and Sub-Zero circle his arms with great force, making Scorpion toss away his katana. Scorpion takes out his other katana, Sub-Zero quickly freezes the ground, making Scorpion slip and fall, and accidentally tossing his other katana. Sub Zero quickly stomps on Scorpion's head, but eventually Scorpion grabs Sub-Zero's foot and pushes it up, getting Sub-Zero on the ground. Scorpion teleports standing up, and starts whipping and slicing Sub-Zero with his roped-kunai. Sub-Zero quickly uses forearms and shins as a guard, taking a few cuts. Sub-Zero, lunges his body forward by using a strong blast of ice from his back headbutting Scorpion with his helmet. Scorpion stumbles back a bit. Scorpion grabs one of his Katanas by using his roped-kunai stabbing the handle of the Katana, and pulling it over to him. Sub-Zero starts sliding back, as Sub-Zero starts turning parts of the ground to ice from under his feet. As Sub-Zero does this, Sub-Zero points the palm of his hand at Scorpion, and like a machine gun, a rapid fire of sharp ice spikes come out of it. Scorpion slices the ice spikes with his Katana, and continues to do so when he starts chasing Sub-Zero.

Sub-Zero starts shooting out his ice orbs, but Scorpion keeps teleporting away from them. Sub-Zero starts sliding on the wall of trees, Scropion jumps on the ice path and manages to keep his pace by having his toes stab the ice. Scorpion continues to run, Sub-Zero forms two small spheres of ice, and tosses them as Scorpion. Scorpion dodges them by moving left and right, but upon impact, the ice spheres creating a several small ice spikes, some of them cutting Scorpion. One the spikes cuts near Scorpion's eye, making him fall off the ice trail. Sub-Zero throws more ice spheres at Scorpion. While his back is on the ground, Scorpion, holding having his hand over his eye, sees the spheres, and quickly rolls out of the way, but the impact made the miniature spikes land on Scorpion's back, and neck. Scorpion stands up, and seethes in anger. As Sub-Zero continues to slide across the trees, Scorpion suddenly appears much closer behind him in the air.

" **GET OVER HERE!** " Scorpion yelled as he brings out his roped kunai, which stabs Sub-Zero in the back of his neck, pulling him.

Scorpion and Sub-Zero both fall down to the stands up first, takes the kunai out of Sub-Zero's neck. Sub-Zero tries to stand up, but keeps,falling down.

"Damn!" exclaimed Sub-Zero, "you just had to add toxins to your little stinger."

Scorpion does a diagonal slice across Sub-Zero's chest. Sub-Zero briefly shout in pain, grabbing his chest. Scorpion walks up to Sub-Zero intending to chop his head off, but Sub-Zero eventually looks around, and stops stumbling, and elbows Scorpion in the chest. Sub-Zero coats his hand in ice, and grabs Scorpion's katana with it, coating the whole sword in ice, and breaks it in two by thrusting it to knee. Sub-Zero throws the the katana pieces pieces aside, and turn is coated hand into a small blade, and thrusts it at Scorpion's chest, but Scorpion grabs sub-zero's wrist and shoulder, and starts bashing it with his knee, cracking the ice hand. Scorpion attempts to bash it again a second time, but Sub-Zero makes the hand have sharp spike, and when Scorpion does it again, the spike stabs Scorpion's knee. Scorpion yells in pain, lets go of Sub-Zero and grabbing his knee with a hand. Sub-Zero forms his orb again, and Scorpion tries to teleport away, but couldn't, he just flickers. Sub-Zero laughs at this.  
"You're not even experienced enough to manage your own powers!" chortled Sub-Zero, "I can't believe you, the mighty Scorpion, are the fate of this clan! The fate of Japan even! The barbarians will win and rule this land, because of you..."  
Scorpion stands up straight, Sub-Zero launches his orb, Scorpion dashes and jumps over the orb, and punches Sub-Zero's head twice, and as Scorpion was about to punch him again, Sub-Zero grabs his fist and which he pulls out to the side, and grabbing Scorpion's throat with his forearm. Frost emits from Sub-Zero's mask and ice forms around Scorpion's head. Scorpion quickly head butts Sub-Zero a few times, and tosses him forward. Sub-Zero lands on his feet, Scorpion brings out his rope Kunai and starts whipping him with it. Sub-Zero does bother to guard himself this time. As he takes the the blows, ice forms around Sub-Zero's body, causing the kunai to be ineffective. Scorpion lunges forward hitting Sub-Zero with his elbow. Sub-Zero didn't flinch, and Scorpion hurt his own elbow. Scorpion tries to punch the armor, and when doing so, Sub-Zero leaves the armor, and Scorpion gets frozen. Sub-Zero laughs.  
"I just love this the old 'Ice Clone' trick." said Sub-Zero "It implants the freeze orb within the armor, and gives off a rather unexpected surprise."  
Sub-Zero upper cuts Scorpion's body, lunging him seven feet in the air. When Scorpion's body lands on the ground, the ice shatters and some shards of ice are stabbed with in Scorpion. As Scorpion stands up, Sub-Zero quickly slides towards Scorpion, freezing him.

"Alright," said Sub-Zero "I'll admit, you're a persistent kid." Sub-Zero brings out his ice blade, "But the games are over. Time to finish this."

As Sub-Zero was about to decapitate Scorpion, coughing can be heard. Sub-Zero holds his blade with one hand and quickly turns around, seeing Scorpion's wife as she chops off Sub-Zero's arm with a Katana. Sub-Zero kneels down, and wound starts spraying blood. Sub-Zero quickly aims the blood at Scorpion's wife, turning it into a large spike of ice, thus stabbing her in the belly. Scorpion screams, albeit it's muffled. Scorpion's eyes turn as tears try to move down his cheeks. Despite Scorpion can still scan the area with his eyes, and he sees his son sneaking behind Sub-Zero. Scorpion yells at the top of his lung, to point where he's clearly yelling "run" his son doesn't listen, he brings out a knife and stabs Sub-Zero in the Shin. Sub-Zero yells in pain and turns around. Scorpion's son tries to pull his mother away, Sub-Zero takes notice and just stares. A gunshot is heard, and a bullet hits Scorpion's son, killing him.

"God damn it Cyrax…" Sub-Zero mutters

Scorpion eyes became that of true anger, his muscles tighten, Scorpion breaks free from the icey grasp. Sub-Zero turns around, and Scorpions starts punching, kicking Sub-Zero's body, even if it leaves almost to no effect. Scorpion does this for five minutes straight. Scorpion kneels down and starts crying more aggressively, as he bangs his fist on Sub-Zero's frozen leg.

"What do you honestly have to live for?" asked Sub-Zero. Scorpion doesn't answer. He just pants, his eyes red, and the rims darken, tears are still flowing. "There, there." Sub-Zero pants Scorpion's head, "don't cry, you'll see them soon."

Sub-Zero grabs Scorpion's neck, and rips it out of his body, with his head still attached to his spine. The whole dome of the forest is set aflamed. Sub-Zero is taken surprised by this, and sees a man in a green gi, white pants, black cape and a straw hat, holding a single knife. Sub-Zero drops Scorpion's head, and shoots a spike of ice at the man, and it's actually just a mirror. The man rushes up behind Sub-Zero and slices his waist Sub-Zero yelled in pain, and turned around, and couldn't find the man, and the same thing happened again. Sub-Zero turns around more furiously, and starts to notice his ice powers are becoming more useless. Sub-Zero starts to panic, and starts shouting in pain from his chopped limb, and kneels down. Sub-Zero looks around on his knees, and sees four flickering purple clad ninjas with red-eyeliner, starting to throw a barrage of kunais at him. Sub-Zero falls on his chest, and the straw hat man picks up the head of Scorpion.

"I'm…" said the straw hat man, "... Sorry. I should've come sooner." He gently puts his head by his family, and picks up his Kunai. "I shall avenge you," straw hat man raises Scorpion's kunai in the air, "Scorpion! I, Kisaragi Zantetsu, shall assassinate the evil Shinnosuke Kagami!" as he jumps in the through the hole of the dome, along with the four purple ninjas. The grass starts to set on fire, Sub-Zero's body turns charred black, and the flesh of Scorpion's head melts, becoming a skull.

 **Crimson Transparencies**

 **A/N: I want to give credit to GokuaVergil and Techavision for proofreading this. Also I'm currently looking for Beta Readers. If you want to beta-read the future chapters, send me a PM, and we'll discuss it further.**


	2. Chapter 2

February 28th, 2001. Beijing, China. 11:00 PM. The lights from the streets and buildings over power the lights from the sky, diminishing any stars in the sky. Cars speed by, the sounds of their blare at every corner. They say, that road signs are recommendations, not requirements. Despite this mentality, not many accidents happen, most of the reckless driving comes from impatience, cutting people off, passing red lights. It's an organized chaos. The reckless driving diminishes around a black limousine. Some drive by it, slowly, some pass it quickly. Inside the Black Limousine, the General Secretary Jiang Zemin, sits besides several soldiers, and General Chi Haotian, sitting right next to Jiang Zemin. Chi Haotian is uncomfortable and frustrated, as Jiang Zemin laughs as he puts his arms over a soldier next to him, and Chi Haotian's shoulders.

"Sir," said Chi Haotian, "It's nice to see that you're having the time of your life, but could you please at least act natural," Jiang Zemin waves at a car driving past the limo, Chi Haotian puts his arm down, "and stop waving at ongoing drivers!"

"Relax will you!" slurred Jiang Zemin, "Nothing will happen."

"I told you this many times! Something could happen! You know what day is it right?"

"Yeah, yeah, the 54th anniversary of the 228 incident, no reason to ask me."

"And it's" Jiang Zemin parrots Chi Haotian, "four days until May 4th!"

"Listen, I work hard. I want to go out and drink at my favorite bar, and I want to ride on my nice import. Yeah, I'm aware that the _Children of Proudhon_ could plot an attack tonight. But should I be afraid? Fuck no! If I show fear, I'm giving what these terrorists want, terror! The Children of Proudhon are nothing but a bunch of troubled children!" Jiang Zemin looks at his limo driver, "Hey you! Open roof!?"  
"What!?" the limousine driver holds a button and the roof of the limousine opens, Jiang Zemin peaks out of it.

"Children of Proudhon!? Come and get me!? I'm right here!" Chi Haotian is pulling Jiang Zemin down.

"Will you get down you moron!" Chi Haotian successfully pull in Jiang Zemin, "There could've been a sniper!"

"Yeah, well there wasn't." Chi Haotian turns his head, left to right.

"Do you hear that?"

"Hear what? Chi Haotian, you're an old man, you served our country well, I think you need to finally retire-"

"SHUSH! Sorry sir…"

Faint music of _La Internacional Anarquista_ is heard. 1 mile behind the limousine, ten motorcyclists carrying uzis, all riding a black motorcycle with a red gas tank, and all of them are wearing half red half black leather jackets, black leather pants, black boots, and a red helmet with a black visor. The one leading, is playing _La Internacional Anarquista._ The Limousine driver looks at his rear view mirror, and gasps as he sees the motorcyclists approaching.

"Keep driving at your usual pace." ordered Jiang Zemin

"Alright men!" yelled Chi Haotian as he and his men bring out their weapons

"That won't be necessary."

"What do you mean it isn't necessary!?"

"I already got it covered."

"Oh… You don't mean the Hizoku right?"

"Exactly."

"Sir! I'm sorry, but this is ridiculous! We don't need two assassination groups, the Lin Kuei is enough."

"The Lin Kuei and Hizoku are related. They're similar enough."

Behind the street lights, a motorcyclist is riding on the thin rim of the street keeps up with the pace of the red and black motorcyclists. The motorcyclist in question is wearing mostly black pants, with mostly yellow on the front, yellow boots, a _Game of Death_ inspired yellow leather jacket, with black stripes, and a black motorcycle helmet. A long braided ponytail hangs outside the helmet, with a very large yellow bead at the end of it. The Red and Black motorcyclists aim their uzis at the limousine, the black and yellow motorcyclist slows down a bit, enough to be only a bit behind the motorcyclist furthest back, and drives into the street. The Yellow and Black Motorcyclist slowly gets to right of the motorcyclist furthest behind, and when he's right next to him, the yellow and black motorcyclist, unnaturally and quickly stretches out his left, pale arm, which crashes into the concrete, of which his hand pops out behind the bottom of the motorcycle, the force of the hand popping out is strong enough to send the motorcycle flying in the air, causing the motorcyclist to fall. Once the hands pops out below the motorcycle,it immediately stretches back to normal. The Yellow and Black motorcyclist sees a black van driving up at the furthest right lane behind him, and quickly gets behind the van.

When the motorcyclist was raised into the air, the red and black motorcyclists turn their heads immediately behind them.

"What the hell is going on!?" yelled one of the motorcyclist

"We're not alone!" yelled the leading motorcyclist, "I noticed several military officials are in there! They haven't attacked! They sent someone to kill us!"

The limousine speeds off, and the Red and Black motorcyclists start shooting at the limousine, the Yellow and Black motorcyclist drives into the action with his arms turning red, he stabs two motorcyclists in the backs that are furthest in the back. The motorcyclists see the Yellow and Black motorcyclists and start shooting at him with their uzis. The Yellow and Black motorcyclist, like a comic book character, inhumanly dodges the bullets, almost like he teleport in one spot to another.

'What the fuck is this guy, Bat-Man!?" yelled one of the motorcyclists

"He could be a machine! A ghost! The Great fucking Kung Lao! I don't care! Pierce him!" yelled the leading motorcyclist

As they continue to spray their bullets, the Yellow and Black motorcyclist continues to unusually dodge. When the motorcyclists reload their ammunition, they noticed the Black and Yellow motorcyclist is gone. Suddenly, two motorcyclists got their throats slit, yelling anguish, as blood rolls their necks, as they fall off their motorcycles.

"Okay!" yelled the leading motorcyclist, as he sees the limousine is entering in heavier traffic, "scramble!"

The limousine, and the motorcyclists enter a five lane road, where, from the looks of things, consists mostly of large trucks. The limousine zips through the trucks just fine, as loud horns from the trucks roared. Two of the motorcyclists try to follow the limousine, the other three enter in different lanes. The trucks, going at a max of 70 mph, and the space to change lanes, is very narrow. One motorcyclist gets by changing lanes is by threatening the truck drivers with an uzi. Another motorcyclist, does this occasionally, however, he seems skeptical, having a true sense of fear in his eyes, sweating. He looks under the trucks, and constantly points his uzi in different directions, sometimes not even to intend to threaten the truck drivers. Edging outside of the mass of trucks, the motorcyclist sees motorcycle wheels under behind a truck. The motorcyclist goes the same speed, as the wheels, and when they both pass the the truck, the motorcyclist launched his bullets on a man in a blue jacket riding a motorcycle. The Yellow and Black Motorcyclist is on top of the truck, and lands on the paranoid motorcyclist, the front wheels knocks off the helmet, allow the wheels to drive on the back of the motorcyclist heads, shaving of hair and flesh, pushing the guy on the road. The back land on the back of the guy's hand cracking his skull open, having his brain drip out. The Yellow and black motorcyclist now trails blood as he drives.

The limousine, and the four motorcyclists made it out of the mass of trucks, and they enter a street with a much larger variety of vehicles. Oil Trucks, Trucks, cars, taxi cabs, and tourist buses. The motorcyclists shoot several drivers behind them, including a bus driver, which with the bus driver, is going max speed and as his arm stuck on going right, thus the bus falls down to the side, which causes some cars to push a strong halt at the breaks, but gets collided with other cars. The dead driver's cars also crash into other cars, all of this mass hysteria, causes an orchestra of horns honking. The Yellow and Black motorcyclist is caught up in the madness is behind the madness, moving his body side by side, seeing if there's an opening to escape this madness. The oil of the bus starts to spill, and the oil truck is trying to stop, but can't. The Oil truck slips to the left, and the oil side collides with the bus full speed. The oil trucks explodes, causing a chain reaction of explosions, such as the bus exploding, and several other cars. Several cars are set on fire and then they explode. However in the midst of the oil truck exploding, the Yellow and Black motorcyclist starts spinning in the air, going through the explosion, and landing on the ground continuing to the chase the Red and Black motorcyclists.

"Impossible it can't be!" yelled one of the motorcyclists.

Two road splits into paths. One is a lower path on the left, that's by a lake, and the other is a higher road that's on a hill that leads into a market stricken area. One of the two motor cyclists behind the motorcyclists near the limousine, see a car with a sleeping little girl hugging her stuffed rabbit. The motorcyclist shoots open the window, leading the parents and to yell in hysterics, the motorcyclist grabs the little the girl, and points an uzi at her head and the two motorcyclists behind, go up to the higher road. The little girl keeps screaming and crying.

" **SHUT THE FUCK UP OR I'LL BLOW YOUR BRAINS OUT**!" yelled the Motorcyclist holding the girl hostage

"Come on man!" yelled the motorcyclist in front of him, "That's not we're about!"

"AND KILLING THOSE ALL THOSE PEOPLE WERE!?"

The Black and Yellow motorcyclist follows the two motorcyclist uphill. Inside the limousine the back window is shattered, and the the men are crouching down. General Chi Haotian peaks at the back right window, and sees the yellow and black motorcyclist is driving up hill.

"Great!" said Chi Haotian sarcastically "Your little assassin just bailed out on you!"

"The Hizoku are a group you know." Jiang Zemin responded.

The motorcyclists chasing the limousine aim their uzis at the limousine driver. The two motorcyclists are followed by a woman motorcyclist wearing a button orange t-shirt, orange dress pants, and black dress shoes, but isn't wearing socks or stockings.

"Hey boys!" the woman motorcyclist yelled

The two motorcyclists turned around pointing their uzis at the woman motorcyclist behind them. The woman motorcyclist opens her top tearing the buttons off showing off her bare breasts. The motorcyclists are confused for a brief moment, but in that brief moment, the woman stretches her arms stabbing her hands into the the two motorcyclist's back of their necks. Her hands comes out of the bottom of their jaws, her fingers grab their lower row of teeth, and rips off their jaws, and takes them out the back of their necks, as she shrinks her arms.

On the top road, The two motorcyclist drive pass a lot of small stands, and shops. They look behind and they don't see the Yellow and Black motorcyclist.

"I swear he was behind us!" exclaimed the motorcyclist holding the hostage, "where the fuck could he be this time!?"

From two opposing alley ways, two cops on motorcycles start chasing them while they have their lights flash red and blue. One of the cops rides up to left, right next to the motorcyclist putting the girl hostage, as he starts whacking him with a baton. The motorcyclist pushes the girl at the cop, and shoots them both in the process, pushing the cop and girl off the motorcycle, and fall into a stand selling small jade statues, causing the stand to collapse.

"Okay!" yelled the motorcyclist in front, "That's it! I didn't sign up for this bullshit!"

The motorcyclist reverses his bike to the one behind, and starts punching him. The motorcyclist that had a girl hostage, shoots his partner in the gut, impales him in the bullet wound with the barrel of the uzi, lifts him up and tosses him to the cop behind him. As the motorcyclist keeps driving he sees a trail of a red line, the motorcyclist continues to follow the trail. The trail takes him to an old apartment complex, about half a mile away from the market. The motorcyclist turns off his bike, and leads it against a wall, and puts the key in his pocket. The motorcyclist, stares at the apartment for a few seconds.

"Could he have known…?" the motorcyclist said to himself. He looks up and sees a buildings, with the few being on have a yellow light, except one on the third floor had a dim red light. "How does he know our base of ops!?"

The motorcyclist rushes inside the apartment, taking the elevator, run through the hallway where the only light is a flickering one. He goes up to the door at the very end of the hallway, busts down the door, and what he sees is darkness, until he walks in and turns his head, and sees the door, with a red outline. He walks up to it, until he stepped on something, which is a tail of a German Shepherd and Wolf Hybrid, as it starts aggressively barking at him. The motorcyclist shoots the dog, and opens the door, and it's the kitchen, and first thing is seen, is a man with a bloody hole on back of his head, holding a pistol, on the floor, as blood is all over the the wall behind him, even covering up the whole light bulb. Two other men are also killed. One where a long kitchen knife is stabs a fridge, through a man's eye socket, and the other is tied up and getting burned in the oven. The motorcyclist looks at the reflection of the window, and sees the Yellow and Black motorcyclist is behind, and when he turns around, he isn't there. The motorcyclist exists out of the kitchen, lifts up visor and vomits. The lights suddenly turn, and the Yellow and Black motorcyclist stands there, by the front door. The Motorcyclist aims his uzi and tries to shoot him, but no bullets came out of it. The Yellow and Black motorcyclist just crosses his arms and stares at the insane motorcyclist.

"You listen here!" yelled the motorcyclist, "I'm just fighting for freedom! Freedom to speak! Freedom to think! Freedom of everything! Those two men cost more lives than I ever committed in my life! Here you are, just sucking their dick, continuing to be a slave to the system!" the Yellow and Black motorcyclist didn't respond right away.  
"I was feeling empathetic on what you stood for," said the Yellow and Black Motorcyclist. His hand turns red, he walks up to the motorcyclist, and puts his red face, burning it, melting, making him shriek, "But you ended up being as bad them." the Yellow and Black motorcyclist lets go, and the motorcyclist has flesh melting off his face, to the point where part of his skull is exposed.

The Black and Yellow motorcyclist takes off his helmet, revealing to be a mostly bald, eyebrowless pale man, wearing a black cloth mask covering his nose and mouth. He taps a small device in his right ear.

"Mr. Jiang Zemin," said the Yellow and Black motorcyclist

"Yes Lin?" Jiang Zemin's voice responds, which came out of the device

"The job is done," the Yellow and Black motorcyclist responded, "I assassinated the remaining Children of Proudhon members. Did Luan kill the other two?"

"Oh yes, and let me just say, it was a sight worth seeing. By tomorrow morning, I will wire the money to your Swiss bank accounts."

"Good." Lin sighs and looks at the ceiling "Good…"

Lin puts his helmet back on and walks to outside of the front entrance to the apartment. In front of him, is the woman motorcyclist, Luan, who is on her motorcycle.

"What happened to your bike?" asked Luan

"I lost it in a tree." answered Lin

"Typical." Lin walks up to the motorcycle, and sits on the back and puts his arms around Luan's belly, "Though, it is worth it. I like the feel of your hands." Luan rides off into the streets. The streets became nearly a ghost town, with only a few cars passing by in the streets and many buildings have their lights shut off. Lin and Luan are silent for a good five minutes of driving. "... Lin? Are you alright?"

"You know how I am."

"Don't give me any of that shit. I know you're not doing your assassin bullshit, 'being silent and reserved', something is bothering you."  
"I… I'm just. Conflicted."

"About what?"

"I just think. Like. I have empathy for The Children of Proudhon. I don't agree with them, in fact, I find anarchy a fool's dream. But at the same time, I understand what they're coming from. They're witnesses of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. I may not agree with the protesters, I do think our people need communism. I can't fathom us handling Anarchy, or Democracy… But, I… I can't say… I can't forgive for what Zemin has done. I can't stand seeing the innocent get hurt…"

"But… They're not really innocent..."

"I know. I just… I just think perhaps a more, well… I just wish our leaders are more like fathers, rather than than exterminators spraying away pests."

"Lin… You know they might be monitoring us right."

"No one is around to hear us, and they damn well know I'm not going to do anything about it." Luan doesn't respond. "Luan, don't worry. I will be fine."

Luan drives into a more seedy area, where everything is closed, some buildings that were once businesses, entirely abandoned. Luan parks near a two story building, with dirty windows, and a sign above the front door saying "Profit Hotel" both in Mandarin and in English. They enter in and it's a small room with a few chairs against the wall near the front door. In front of them is a set of stairs, and an old lady with her head on the cash register sleeping. Lin goes up to the desk Lady, and places some Yuan dollar bills next to her, Luan jumps over the counter and takes a random key from the key rack. The two go upstairs, leading them to a dark hallway.

"Lin," said Luan, "can you find room 10?" Lin looks at the doors, and goes to the side of even-numbers. As he walks down, Luan follows him. Lin stops.

"Here" said Lin as he taps the door.

Luan puts the key into the door knob, opens the door and they get into their room. The room only contains a bed, a bathroom with no walls, just shutters covering it up, and a drawer with a very small CRT TV on top of it.

"I have question," said Lin as he takes off his helmet, and leather jacket; Lin is essentially shirtless, but has black straps covering most of his upper torso, "you have sex with other men?"

"No." answered Luan as she closes the door. "You're the only one.

"Luan. I can understand cheating on you husband, I cheat on my wife all the time. But I'm not your boyfriend. I'm thirty-five." Lin takes off his boots, "You're twenty-two. It would just seem, well... " Lin takes off his pants, "strange to be romantically together."

"I don't care."

"Also bare in mind." Lin takes off his boxers and tosses them across the room, "we're not allowed to be in love, and I don't mean by law. I could get killed one day. You're young. We worry about your morale when a loved one dies. That's why in the Lin-Kuei, spouses are not allowed to be in battle." Lin lays down on the bed. "That includes husbands."

Luan takes off her clothes. She lays down her front body on Lin, and pulls down his mask, licking his cheek. Lin's face doesn't make a response, even she starts kissing him on the lips.

"You're the only one in the Hizoku I find sexy…"

"What about Duo Lon? Or the younger recruits?"

"I don't like children." Luan rubs her head on Lin's chest.

"Duo Lon is only one year younger than you."

"...You fucked several men and women… Am I the best?"

"I won't deny… You're pretty damn good…"

The two stopped talking. Within twenty minutes the two fell asleep. Six hours passed, while the sun is weak and dim, a faint ray hitting Lin's eyelid, Lin's eyes opened. Lin gently shakes Luan's head.

"Uuugh," Luan groaned, "can it wait?"

"New day," stated Lin, "new mission." Lin lifts Luan's body up and gets out of bed. Luan grabs Lin's arm.

"Please stay a little longer…" Luan rubs her head on Lin's arm. "Last night felt so good…"

"I can't." Lin frees his arm by gently swinging it. Lin taps radio in his ear, "Ron Lon, I'm heading back to base… Ron?" Lin puts on his clothes with one hand (except for his leather jacket), and taps his radio with the other. "Duo, are you there?"

"Yeah, I am." answered a voice from Lin's device.

"Are you at base?"

"Yes."

"Did you happen to see your father this morning, or did he say anything about going anywhere this morning?"

"Not that I recall."

"Strange… Thank you, me and Luan will return back to base shortly." Lin turns to Luan. Lin is wearing everything but his leather jacket and helmet. "Luan. Get dressed. Something might of happened to Ron."

"God damn this job sometimes…" Luan groaned.

March 1st. Hebei Province. 7:30 AM. Lin and Luan drive their motorcycles across a wide grassy plains. The area has many hills, while hints of civilization isn't absent, it's miles away from where Lin and Luan are driving. The sky is covered mostly in gray clouds, with a few cracked holes of blue skies exposed. They approach downhill to a house small house in front of tall trees where the stem can barely be seen. There is a hill poking out of the slant of the hill, almost like a ramp. When Lin and Luan are driving down hill, they drive on that ramp and they fly through the trees, landing on the other side.

They enter a large, wide, desolate area. There is a long, stone tiled path that goes on for 50 meters. The path hasn't been preserved well, grass starts to seep through the ridges, and as a matter of act, the grass on the sides of the trail, are a good five feet tall. The path leads to a building in the style of an Imperial Era chinese temple, with two lion guardian statues on the side of the entrance. Like the path, it's also horribly preserved. There seems to be paint on the building, but it's has bleached brownish color, likely was once a muted red. The walls, and even some of the poles, are cracked, and eroded. The tiled roof, has a bleached cyan, with dark turquoise pores, clearly affected by the sun and the rain. The roof also has missing tiles, and around the areas of missing tiles, are clear indications of erosion, as it looks like the tiles are melting. The front door seems to be the most well preserved, though it never seems like it was meant to impress everyone, it's just large and wooden.

Lin and Luan get off their motorcycles, and walk along the ancient stone path, and push the door inward. Entering inside, is a dim room square room. With a staircase down to the basement in the center. Several men, with their backs against the well, mediate, and they all look similar to like Lin. They all have pale skin, and wear a cloth mask covering their nose and mouth, but they all have different hair styles, they wear black silk vests, which is tucked under their white tights.

"Luan," whispered Lin, "Today I need you to train Ron's daughter, Xiao Lon, unless you are assigned to a mission. If you need me, I'll be in the throne area."

The two walk down stairs, about 100 feet deep, enter in a large area shaped like a small cross. Two areas on the side are large descending stair cases. Straight ahead has men and women wearing the same outfit as the ones in mediating, are all sitting down, closing their eyes, and forming some small mass of green particles. They're doing this at the sides outside of a long red carpet that leads to very end of the room. The carpet has symmetrical patterns ot the side, but on the center of the carpet is that of a large snake. At the end of the room has a small staircase, that has three rows. The first two rows have men and women in casual working on computers, all sitting on swivel chairs. The top row only has a large throne in the center. The only lights within the room is a spotlight on the ceiling, hovering over the snake on the carpet, and the light of the computer screens. Luan takes the large staircase to the lift, and Lin walks up to the throne, and stands in front of it.

"Hey," spoke Lin to a man working on a computer that working on a computer.

"Yes Mr. Lin?" the man working on the computer immediately turns around to Lin looking up at him.

"Did Ron mention he would be going anywhere in the past hour?"

"No, he hasn't. But he did send an excel document to us."

"What's in the document?"

"It's an updated schedule of missions, and meetings."

"What does it say for today?"

"The only thing listed is a mission for Duo Lon."

"Just a mission for Duo Lon…?"  
"Yeah, something about torturing some guy in Yunnan. It's assigned by some rich Uyghur guy. Likely a gangster."

"Does Duo get any backup? Anything regarding travel getting covered?"  
"Not from what I can tell…" Lin goes walks up to the man's computer, and looks closely at the excel sheet.

"Alright, this doesn't make any sense." Lin walks back up to the top row. "This too random of a mission for Duo, and not to mention too vague. I'm going to make an announcement…" Lin opens a lid that's on the left armrest of the throne, which has a small black button. Lin presses holds on that button. When speaking, his voice comes out several speakers, making his voice echo throughout the room. "Attention this is Wong Lin speaking, our commander, Ron Lon, is missing. I will be taking charge of the clan, until we get an update on Ron's presence. For any concerns, please report me, Lee Luan, Karma Chat, and Situ Sai, to discuss matters further. That is all." Lin lets go of the button, closes the lid, Lin taps on to his radio device. "Duo-Lon, please report to the throne area.

Two minutes later, an effeminate young man enters from the staircase from the right side of the room, and walks up to the throne area. The young man has even paler skin than Lin, a large black coat, with a purple collar and lining. The coat has four golden stitches of dragons, two on each side, as well as wearing black business pants, and dark brown dress shoes. The man has long dark brown hair, largely covered by white cloth, hanging behind the man's cranium. In front of the cloth, the hair is smooth. Behind the cloth is thin, and braided, with several flat white disk beads, and large white spherical bead at the end, making the cloth look like a funnel. The young man bows at lin.

"What is master Lin." said the young effeminate man.

"Now, now Duo." tentatively said Lin as he signals Duo Lon to stand up straight, "There's no need to call me master. If Ron is found dead, you will be the one in charge."

"What's the problem?"

"We received an email from Ron which has a mission for you. I do not believe this is a legitimate email from your father. I believe your father is in trouble, and I fear that you might be a target whoever who has caused the disappearance of your father. I recommend you don't leave the base, and keep a low key for a while, until we get everything settled."

"Hm… I understand the concern. But I think I should take this mission. I am aware that this likely a trap, but we have to start somewhere don't we? We don't have any other clues at the moment."

"Eeeh, I don't know about this. Perhaps we could send in a decoy instead?"

"I doubt that will work. If this is a trap they are expecting me. I'll have backup with me. About five men should do it." Lin paces around a bit, with his index finger and thumb around his jaw. Lin sighs.

"Alright. I approve of your plan. Do not kill your target however interrogate him if you can." Duo lon bows with his upper torso.

"Understood."

Southern Yunnan, 11:17 AM. In a jungle area, where the trees are thin, and the bushes are thick, though there is a large variety of the trees and bushes and there is a large amount of them each, making the jungles thick, while providing a good shade. A single house within the jungle, a small, wooden house, box shaped, no doors, no windows, stands by a long, shallow, yet thin river. Two members of the Hizoku are high up in the trees, about 10 feet away from the house, one is in the river, and two are in bushes. Duo stands about five feet away from the house. He then sits on the ground with his legs crossed, puts his palms on the soil, and closes his eyes.

"Do you sense anything?" whispers one of the Hizoku to Duo.

"Nothing" Duo whispers back, "There doesn't seem to be any bombs, or traps or anything. However…" Duo opened his eyes, "I don't sense life either."

"You want one of us to go in, just incase?"

"No…"

Duo Lon stands up, and walks up to the house. When approaches the front of the house, the men on the trees are suddenly attacked by a quick black force. Duo Lon enters in the house, and the men in the bushes are attacked by the same black force. The only thing in the room Duo Lon sees is a man sitting on his chair, with his eyes closed, and mouth open. The body doesn't make a single movement or sound. The black force stops by the river, revealing to be a man in a large black coat. He puts his pale hand on the water over the Hizoku member, and the Hizoku member starts shaking around, takes off his mask, and blood is coming out of his blood and nose. He twists his body over seeing the man in the black cloak. As blood starts covering his face, the Hizoku member stops moving, and his body hovers. Duo Lon check's the man's pulse from his wrist, and there isn't any. The man opens his eyes and looks at Duo Lon, making jump aback. He said to him.  
"Stop."

 _How would you like to buy a sign with one thousand and one uses?_

An old lady owns a pond in her backyard. The old lady in particular, never had a husband, a son, a daughter. She was very anti-social. For fifty years, the old lady worked at mostly blue collar jobs. The only thing she truly trusts are her two koi fish. One day, the old lady died.

"Very flexible."

Nobody knew that the old lady died. The koi fish became to starve, and each passing day they became thinner, and thinner.

"Deals with unknown situations very well."

One day an ignorant scorpion enters in the pond. The scorpion struggles to swim,splashing around. The koi noticed the splashing, and salivate at the sight of the scorpion. They quickly swim over to the scorpion, eating it. The koi tore off its arms, tail, legs, and body, swallowing it.

"Likes almost every change."

As the koi eat the scorpion, they start to eat each other.

"It is least compatible with: Gemini."

Duo Lon starts vomitting on the dead body sitting on the chair. Duo Lon, while already sweating, starts to sweat more profusely around his forehead. Duo Lon has his hand on his belly and turns around, sees Sub-Zero at the end of the room. The same Sub-Zero that killed Scorpion long ago. But the Sub-Zero had pitch-black skin, and any blue on his clothing is pitch black. A silhouetted man came out of Sub-Zero's body, ran up to Duo-Lon, and impales Duo's chest with its arm.

 **对不起**

 **悔無し**


	3. Chapter 3

Aokigahara Forest, Japan. 9:00 AM. Also known as the "Sea of Trees" and for a good reason. The forest is shrouded with many thin trees with its roots spreading all across the mossy ground. A man who looks similar to Sub-Zero, but with a more realistic complexion, has spandex covering most of his head, and the mask is made out of blue polycarbonate materials instead of metal. The middle portion of the mask is black, with three holes in form of horizontal lines. As the man runs, he starts panting, and each external breathe is frost coming out from the black portion of the mask.

Six men are chasing Sub-Zero. All of them are in black spandex, with pieces of silver armor covering their knees, feet, fore arm, elbows, upper arm, torso and shoulders. They have white helmets with a black section on their foreheads, with silver masks, with narrow eye sockets, with three horizontal vents on the front, and two on each side around the mouth, and long wires poking out from the top of the helmet.

The men in silver aim their arms at Sub-Zero, the tips of their forearms have muzzles, and a rapid fire of bullets. Sub-Zero turns around and launches an icy orb at the silver men. The orb goes through the bullets turning them into ice, and hits one of the silver men. The speed of the bullets are effected by the frost, despite being covered in ice. Sub Zero thrusts out his palm, which halts the bullets in mid air. The bullets turn around in the other direction and they launch at the silver men. The bullets pierce the frozen silver man in the spandex area, causing him to bleed out a tan substance. The others crouched guard the bullets with their forearms and knee pads. When the onslaught of frozen bullets ends, the silver men stand up, and the pectoral section of their torso armor opens like a hatch, and rockets come out of it. Sub-Zero runs away, jumping away from the rockets. One of the rockets gets too close to him, making Sub-Zero fall to the ground. Another Rocket is about to him, and Sub-Zero rolls away from it. The last two rockets hits two trees. Upon this, faces of anguish appear on the trees, moaning, and roaring in pain. Some are yelling incomprehensible speech. The silver men run up toward Sub-Zero, suddenly, the roots on the ground start to move, and they latch onto the legs of the silver men. The roots raise them in the air, and them slamming on the ground constantly. When the Silver Men die, the roots drops them to the ground, and silver men sink into the ground.

Sub-Zero stands up, shuddering as he looks around. The trees, while their faces remain intact, remain silent and expressionless. A man in a large straw hat covering his face suddenly appear 10 meters in front of Sub-Zero. The straw hat man wears a red bead necklace, a navy blue tunic tied with a large rope over a white gi shirt and pants, straps over the shins, and socks with sandals. The straw hat man carries a navy blue staff with a large silver ring at the end of it, with smaller silver rings connect to the bigger ring.

The straw hat man holds the staff with both his hands and taps the ground with it repeatedly. As the straw hat man does this, he starts chanting in Old Japanese. Sub-Zero's eyes bulged in confusion, only moving back a few steps. When Sub-Zero gets near a tree, he immediately turns around takes a step back when the trees start chanting with the straw hat man. Between Sub-Zero and the straw hat man, smoke appeared on the ground. Sub-Zero stares at the smoke emerging from the ground. As the smoke gets thicker and thicker, a purple variant of the silver men with glowing red eyes appear. As the smoke from the ground goes away, smoke comes from the corners of the purple-silver man's armor. Sub-Zero looks at the silver man in bewilderment, and takes two small steps forward.

"Tomas..." said Sub-Zero

The straw hat man starts laughing manically, and the trees laugh with him. As they laugh and laugh, Cracks start form around the mouth piece of Tomas. The cracks form a mouth, and Tomas starts roaring a high pitch squeal, and grows sharp claws from his finger tips. Tomas hisses as gets into a tackling pose, and lunges himself at Sub-Zero.

In a small square dim room, a man who dresses exactly Zantetsu, but has a brown beard, sits down with his legs crossed. The room is lit with a single tall lantern, with the walls being thin and have wooden frames holding them together. The bottom half is beige, with a painting behind Zantetsu look-alike of that of Zantentsu two demonic looking samurai. The top half of the walls are just plain white. From the other side of the room, a door slides open, and a dark purple ninja rolls in and bows.

"Master Ichiro," said the purple to the Zantetsu look-alike. "The local shinto priests sense a disturbance from the eastern section of the forest."

"It's Sokaku Mochizuki isn't it?" answered Master Ichiro

"He's only one I can imagine who has powers of the super natural."

"Are any tourists or visitors getting harmed?"

"It doesn't seem like it. They just described it as a demonic wake of some kind..."

"Well, if it's Sokaku's doing, it isn't directed towards us. It's likely targeted towards the Shiranui clan, which in that case, we will have to get involved, since, you know. They're our allies."

"I see. Understood. Oh, uh, also. Your younger brother Eiji wants to speak with you." Ichiro sighs.

"Does it relate to the King of Fighters tournament?"  
"He didn't say."

"… Let him in..."

A man enters in the room, a dark purple cloth mask that covers the nose and mouth, a dark purple gi with red lining, which, under the gi is a fishnet shirt, a red belt dark purple pants, straps around the thighs, dark purple socks, red sandals, dark purple wristbands with red lining, and red, fingerless gloves. The man also dark brown bullet, and several cowlicks pointing out of his head, and red eyeliner around his eyes.

"Brother!" said the man in dark purple clothing, "please understand! That this year's King of Fighters is worth it."

"The answer is," pestered Ichiro "and shall always be, no."

"I promise you! This King of Fighters is worth it! I was hired to assassinate Ryo Sakazaki! It's still an assignment left incomplete! Plus, that mother fucking Iori Yagami! After what he did to me, I have to kill his ass too! Not only that! I heard NESTS is funding the tournament! So it's an opportunity to kill three birds with one stone!"  
"Eiji. We can't let the people know that the Kisaragi clan still exist!"

"The won't actually believe that there's an actual Kisaragi clan. They'll think it's some retarded wrestling shit."

"They will believe it, **WHEN YOU KILL A MAN ON LIVE TELEVISION!** Furthermore, you were never assigned to kill Iori Yagami, you were assigned to assassinate Rugal, and we don't rely on rumors. I find it hard to believe that the NESTS, a criminal organization handling genetics, and mind you, are wanted by one of the fiercest military group in the world, Ikari. If I'm not mistaken, even the Special Forces are also tracking them down. It would be foolish of them to run a tournament."

"To clone powerful fighters."

"Eiji. Why would NESTS care about martial arts? I'm sure they care more about men who know how to use guns. Brother. Listen. You are talented, more talented than me. But what you is foresight. It's that reason why you aren't the one running this clan..." another purple ninja enters in the room.

"Sir," said the other purple ninja, "sorry to interrupt, but we have guests."

"What kind of guests?" asked Ichiro

"They're like these robotic men. They claim to be Lin Kuei." Ichiro instantly gets up.

"What!?"

"They aren't attacking us."

"What do they want?"

"They want to see you."

"Brother. Come with me." Ichiro turns to the other purple ninja, "prepare snipers and demolitions incase they attack."

"Will do sir!"

"I will also do this!" said the purple ninja

"Good! Lets go!"

Everyone walks out of the room, the purple ninjas walk way from Ichiro, and Eiji walks beside him. Outside is a large spacious area surround by large wooden fence made of vertical logs. The fence also has a walkway on top, most of the men on there are archers, and riflemen.

"Brother," said Eji as he looks at Ichiro, "The Lin Kuei were the men that killed Scorpion." Eiji brings out a black Kunai from his pocket, "right?"

"One of their men killed him." answered Ichiro Shinnosuke hired one of their best men."

"And our ancestor Zanetsu," Eiji brings out a knife, "killed that man, right?"

"He didn't do it alone, but yes, he was a major part on that man's downfall, uh, I believe that Lin Kuei member is named Sub-Zero."

The two approach a large door, where the walk way above the door, are two archers pointing down outside. Two purple ninjas push open the door, and Ichiro and Eiji walk outside the area, and see three silver men. Two of them being silver, one of them being yellow and has glowing green eyes.

"What the fuck." mumbled Eiji. He turns to Ichiro, "Are these guys robots?"

"Not quite," responded the yellow silver man who speaks in a Jamaican accent, "we are cyborgs. The Lin Kuei evolved into, what we call them, Cyberninjas."

"Hm," muttered Ichiro, "fascinating that a Chinese assassin clan names themselves after something so Japanese."

"There is a strong Japanese influence in our clan. My name is, Daevon Cyrax. I am speaking for our current grandmaster, Sektor Li. Are you Ichiro Kisaragi?"

"Perhaps. What do you want?"

"I want to make a deal. You see, I heard you have the kunai of Scorpion. I would like to have that."

"Why? It's practically an old artifact. There are much better made kunais you can get for a good 4000 yen."

"We just want it. In fact, if it's money you want..." Cyrax's pectoral armor opens, and Cyrax brings out a brief case from it. Cyrax opens the brief case, showing off nothing but 1000 Swiss franc bills. "All yours if you give me that kunai."

"I'm sorry, but no money in the world would be able to buy that kunai. It means too much for our clan. Zantetsu kept Scorpion's kunai because he was good friends with him, he felt betrayed."

"Hm..." Cyrax closes the case and hands it a Cyberninja left of him. "Very well." Cyrax shoots Ichiro in the chest with his wrist gun.

"NO!" Eiji rushes up to his brother on the ground.

Archers on the top of the fence fire their arrows at the Cyrax, however, it's ineffective as they just snap when hitting Cyrax. The silver Cyberninja fire their rockets at the archers, successfully hitting them, also causing damage on the fence. The silver Cyberninja that's right of Cyrax turns around, and fire comes from the muzzle on the wrist, setting the bushes aflame. Several purple ninja roll out of the bushes, screaming as they're on fire. Eiji struggles to lift his brother.

"E-Eiji..." Ichiro mutters, "Run..."

" **NO!** " yelled Eiji, "I can't let you die! I agree with you. You are a better leader!"

"Give me the kunai," demanded Cyrax, "and I'll let your brother live..."

Eiji looks at his brother, breathing heavily. Eiji closes his eye, and takes out his kunai. Ichiro notices on what Eiji is doing, and quickly stands up straight pushing Eiji. Cyrax pectoral amor opens, and a grenade hits Ichiro. Eiji's eyes pour. The tears look like streams of blood due to red eyeliner. Eiji's turn from sadness to pure anger.

"YOU WANT THE FUCKING KUNAI!?" yelled Eiji. Instantly, Eiji appears in front of Cyrax, elbowing him in the chest. "THEN YOU CAN HAVE IT! _**RYUU KAGE JIN!**_ "

Eiji brings out Scorpion's Kunai, and slices it across Cyrax chest. While doing this, yellow trails along the slicing motion, thus generating another slash. Cyrax starts bleeding a tanned substance form his chest, and crouches in, while grabbing his chest, grumbling in pain. The silver Cyberninjas aim their wrists at Eiji. They shoot out flames, but Eiji back-flips out of the way and shoots two silver kunai at the throats of the Silver Cyberninja, causing them to quirt a small fountain of tanned substance. Eiji lands on the ground, and does the teleportation technique again, pushing Cyrax through the fire from the bushes. Both of them are in the forest, Eiji is on top on Cyrax, slicing him with both Scorpion's kunai and Zantetsu's blade. Cyrax grabs Eiji's throat choking. Cyrax squeezes Eiji's throat so tight, the exoskeleton in Cyrax's glove is popping out like a vein. Eiji drops his weapons, Cyrax stands up and tosses Eiji squints his eyes and rubs his throat, when his eyes are opened, he sees Cyrax about to pick up Scorpion's kunai. Eiji leaped towards Cyrax, but Cyrax quickly turns to Eiji launching a green net at Eiji pushing back to the tree. While Cyrax was doing this, an eyeless black snake emerges from the fire, takes grabs the kunai with its mouth, and returns to the flames.

Eiji tries to break free from the net by slicing it with his blades, but to avail doesn't work. Cyrax, brings out a thin chainsaw from his right wrist, and starts sawing the side of Eiji's neck. Eiji screams in agony, as he grabs Cyrax's right arm trying to push the blade away from him. Blood splatters all over Eiji's face, pieces of skin fly off in the wind, when the green net vanishes, Eiji pushes the chainsaw from his neck, and Cyrax over his body. Cyrax lands on his feet, and rapidly punches Eiji in the chest and face. Eiji gets dazed by the flurry of attacks, Cyrax summons a grenade from his chest, Eiji snaps out of his daze jumps to the side. The grenade hits a tire, cause the top half to be snapped and fall. It's about to land on Cyrax, but Cyrax punches the section it's about land on him, breaking the wood. Cyrax's head turns to Eiji and summons a flurry of grenades at him. Eiji runs side by side into the forest, dodging the grenades, which keep hitting the ground and some trees. Eventually a fire breaks out on one of the trees, slowly starting a forest fire. When Eiji gets to about 15 meters away from base, Cyrax stops throwing Grenades. Eiji notices something hits foot, and looks down, and it's a grenade that's beeping. Eiji jumps back, but Eiji is a bit too close to the explosion, pushing him back. Fire forms all around Eiji, the burning trees starting rotating around Eiji. Cyrax pays no mind to the tree movement, and shoots Eiji in the leg. Cyrax starts stomping on the wound, and all Eiji could do is scream at the top of his lungs in pain and agony. A kunai tied to a rope impales Cyrax in the back.

" _ **GET OVER HERE!**_ "

Cyrax gets pulled in, but it seems like no one in particular pulled him in. Cyrax looks around, and sees nothing but flaming trees, and floating ember. Cyrax turns around and Sees Scorpion without pupils or irises in his eyes, uppercuts him in the air. While Cyrax is in the air, Scorpion teleports above him, and slams Cyrax to the ground by chopping with his hands squeezed together. Cyrax slowly gets up from the ground, looks around, and couldn't see Scorpion.

"Who are you!?" yelled Cyrax through glitchy static and fear.

"Who am I?" Scorpion voice echoes through out the forest. " **I AM ANGRY…!** Would you happen to be… Cyrax?" Cyrax doesn't respond, "He was a good friend. A fascinating man, made me which my emperor wasn't xenophobic… Or so I thought he was my fried. He was against me the whole time. Do you know what he did? Was the story ever passed on through generations?"

"W-what did he do?"

"He killed my son. I can the evil from your father has been passed on through generations."

Cyrax starts running through the fiery forest. He turns head behind as he ran, and bumped into someone, causing Cyrax to fall on his posterior. Cyrax looks up, and sees Scorpion. Cyrax panickedly crabwalks, Scorpion takes of his mask, which reveals a firey skull. Scorpion opens his mouth and a breathes fire on Cyrax.

In the eastern section of the forest, Tomas lunges at Sub-Zero scratching him. Sub-Zero grabs Tomas's arms and rolls, getting on top of Tomas.

"Tomas! Smoke!" yelled Sub-Zero, "It's me! Sub-Zero! You know, Kuai Liang?"

The smoke from Smoke's body enters in the ventilation in Sub-Zero's mask, causing him to cough. As Sub-Zero is coughing, Smoke sinks his claws in Sub-Zero's neck, and bites into his chest.

"EECACK D-Don't EECHKK make me do th-this AH-AHCK-ACK!" coughed Sub-Zero uncontrollably.

Sub-Zero breathes in the smoke and starts choking and breathes out an extensive outtake of frost on Smoke, which enters in his ventilation stiffing his muscles. The straw hat man sees smoke in the air and laughs again. In the western section, Eiji slowly tries to get up, but keeps falling down. As Eiji is on the ground, he notices that the ground is moving east, as well as the trees. Scorpion puts his mask on, and looks down on the ground, also noticing the ground and trees are moving east. In the eastern section, the trees move aside, as the firey trees enter. Eiji is near Sub-Zero, Smoke, and the straw hat man.

"Sokaku..." said Eiji when looking at the straw hat man, "What are you doing here? What's going on!?"

"That man!" Sokaku points at Sub-Zero, "Is a Chinese invader! He is! Sub-Zero!" Eiji turns head toward Sub-Zero.

"I heard of you…" Eiji brings out Zantetsu's blade, "you're Lin Kuei!"

"I used to." corrected Sub-Zero

Scorpion turns his head, and he sees Eiji and Sub-Zero in the distance, about 25 meters. Scorpion teleports next to Eiji.

"I have been looking for you…!" announced Scorpion as he points at Sub-Zero

"What?" said Sub-Zero as his eyebrows narrowed, "Who the hell are you!?" Eiji turns his head to Scorpion.

"You're Scorpion," guessed Eiji, "right?"

"That is correct," answered Scorpion, "You must be Zantetsu's son."

"Well, no, uh-, I'm his descendent, but, I'll tell you later. Thank you for saving me."

"After what Zantetsu did, I am in your debt." Scorpion walks forward and stares straight at Sub-Zero, "Don't play dumb Sub-Zero. I'm here, to bring to put you back where you belong!"

"Plus, how do I know you're telling the truth!?"

"I'm not lying!" shouted Sub-Zero, "and whatever Sub-Zero you're referring to, it's not me!"

"Why would Sub-Zero be in the Aokigahara forest then?" questioned Scorpion. Sokaku laughs manically, and does the trees. Sub-Zero turns his head towards Sokaku.

"What's so funny now?" angrily asked Sub-Zero. Sokaku points at Smoke's body, where the ice is melting. Sub-Zero's eyes widened, "You got to me kidding me."

Smoke lunges himself from the ground, and is in high up in the air. The smoke from the fire absorbs Smoke, keeping him afloat in the air. Sub-Zero tries to bring out ice from his hand, but it's instead water. Sub-Zero turns to Sokaku, and points his palm at him. Sokaku's nose starts bleeding. Excessive amount starts pouring out from his noise and entering his mouth. Sokaku drops his staff and grabs onto his throat. Scorpion teleports behind Sub-Zero, jabbing him in the cheek. Blood stops coming out of Sokaku's nose, and Sokaku falls down unconscious. The smoke from the fire emerges on the ground behind Eiji. Smoke pops out of the smoke, grabs Eiji's shoulder, turns him around, and starts biting him in the neck. Sub-Zero is pushed back by Scorpion's jab. Sub-Zero rubs his cheek, then points his palm at Scorpion.

"That might work on humans," said Scorpion, "but not on spectres."

Scorpion teleports in different spots around Sub-Zero, punching, jabbing, kneeing, him. Scorpion's final attack of the teleport fury, is a roundhouse kick, sending Sub-Zero to a tree. Scorpion teleports to Sub-Zero, kneeing him the gut. Eiji grabs Smoke's throat, and rapidly knees Smoke in the gut. Eiji pulls Smoke, and gets his back on the ground. Eiji lifts his leg and waist throwing Smoke to a tree. Eiji's puts his right hand on his bleeding throat, and teleports to Smoke at the tree, thrusting his blade into Smoke's chest. Eiji rapidly stabs smoke in the chest, until Smoke grabs Eiji's arm. Smoke thrusts his foot on Eiji, pushing him. The smoke from the fire absorbs Eiji lifting him up in the air. Eiji tries to moves his body, but couldn't. The smoke from the fire starts to enter in Eiji's ears. Eiji eyes bulge, and starts coughing loudly. Scorpion hears Eiji's coughing, turns around, and sees what's happening to Eiji. Scorpion points his arm at Smoke, with his palm facing up, fingers bended. Suddenly Smoke is set aflame, Eiji falls to the ground, pulls down his mask, and breathes heavily.

"NO!" yelled Sub-Zero.

Sub-Zero's eyes became fierce with anger, and leaps his knee into Scorpion's gut, and grabs scorpion's throat, bashing the top of his head to the tree a few time. Sub-Zero bashes Scorpion's head tree with so much force, parts of the wood flies off. Eiji puts his mask on, and sees what Sub-Zero is doing to Scorpion. Eiji runs and jump up to three, with his feet landing on the stem, quickly twists his body downward in a split second, and leaps forward throwing a rolling shuriken at Sub-Zero's right eye. The shuriken doesn't make contact with his eyeball, but it shaves across his cheek bone, and forehead. Sub-Zero shouts in pain, and cover his right eye with his both hands. Some of the blood from the strike is left on the tree. Scorpion is shocked to see the blood on the tree.

"Wait," requested Scorpion, "you're right. You're not the Sub-Zero I'm looking for." Eiji lands a foot and a half behind Sub-Zero.

"How do you know?" asked Eiji

"The Sub-Zero I'm looking for is a spectre, like me. His blood is too bright, a spectre's blood is a darker red. Well, it's actually black that sparkles red." Sub-Zero takes his hand away from his eye, and sprays water on Smoke's fiery body. Eiji points his blade at Sub-Zero.

"Regardless, he's still an enemy! The Lin Kuei just murdered my brother!"

"For the last time…" seethed Sub-Zero, as he turns around to Eiji and Scorpion, "I'm not Lin Kuei anymore! If you encountered them! Did you noticed that they're cyborgs!? Ask yourself this! Why aren't I cyborg!?"

"Then why are you here!?"

"The Lin Kuei has a new order where all warriors must become Cyberninjas. I escaped, and I became a wanted man by them…" Sub-Zero steps aside pointing at Smoke, "They turned my best friend into a Cyberninja, I was stalking him, I was hoping that he has humanity left in him, so that maybe I can talk to him, and perhaps start a new life, maybe rebel against the Lin Kuei." Sub-Zero crouches down and lift Smoke's wrist, checking his pulse. Sub-Zero sighs. "But I guess it's too late for that..." Scorpion turns to Eiji.

"I sense that he's telling the truth." whispers Scorpion

"He could be a good actor" Eiji whispers back

"Did Cyrax come here?" asked Sub-Zero

"Uh, yeah." answered Eiji.

"I killed him." said Scorpion. Sub-Zero stands up quickly and turns to to Eiji and Scorpion.

"I suggest you and your clan separate and renovate." recommended Sub-Zero in a rushed tone, "Cyrax is close friends with Lin-Kuei's grandmaster, Sektor-Li. If he finds out that his close comrade is killed, they will come back." Eiji rubs his jaw for a few seconds. Eiji then quickly pokes at Sub-Zero's ears, and parts of his body. Sub-Zero sighs, "I don't have any devices on me." Eiji growls.

"FINE!" shouted Eiji, "I trust you. **For now**. I will not let my sights off of you! Do you understand?"

"Yeah, whatever."

"I'll take you to my base, and discuss further matters." Eiji gets close to Sub-Zero and points at him. "Don't you ever reveal the location of our base or our the names of my members!?"

"If you take my advice, that shouldn't matter." Eiji takes a few steps back, and turns to Scorpion and bows.

"It's an honor to meet you Mr. Scorpion. We carry your weapon through the ages in your honor."

"No need for the formalities." said Scorpion, "I'm, honestly not that great of a ninja, nowhere near as great as my ancestor Hanzo Hattori. I consider myself a failure."

"Most ninjas aspire to be you. You're definitely very talented in your craft."

"I guess..." Sub-Zero lifts up the body of Smoke. "I… I'm sorry." Sub-Zero looks at Smoke's helmet.

"I understand..." said Sub-Zero

Eiji stands up and leads the two into the fiery forest. Fire department sirens can be heard in the distance, as the faces of the trees fade away.

"Eiji," said Scorpion, "what year is this?"

"2001." answered Eiji

"Did Zantetsu slay Shinnosuke Kagami?"

"No, that was Kaede."

"Ah, he is a talented samurai. Why is the Kisaragi clan renovated in the Aokigahara forest?"

"After Zantetsu's son passed away, Zantetsu's grandson, Sanji Kisaragi, decided to move the clan in a more isolated and spirit driven area, so that no one will ever find out that they still exist. Those who dare to try will face the spirits themselves."

"Well," said Sub-Zero, "now we know why those people committed suicide."

The three approach to the Kisaragi's base. Eiji's eyes widened in awestruck, when he sees his brother at the front gate. Eiji ran up to him, hugging him, crying on his shoulder.

"Brother-r-r!" Eiji sobbed. He lets go of Ichiro, "H-how did you survive the blast!? I thought I saw your bodyparts all over the ground!?"

"There is a reason why I'm the leader." said Ichiro, "I teleported to the dirt, to make it look like the grenade hit me. I saw a bit of your battle with Cyrax. Seeing you struggled." Ichiro brings out a scroll from his pocket, "I quickly performed the ritual to summon Scorpion. It was perfect, the kunai and the fire was what is needed."

"I guess those rituals are destined by fate..." commented Scorpion, "From what I could tell, Hades summoned me to capture the Sub-Zero from my time."

"Hades?"

"Greco-Shintoism is the true religion."

"Uh, I see."

"Not going to lie," said Sub-Zero, "but that was a dick move on you part."

"Eiji," said Ichiro, "who is that man?"

"That is Sub-Zero," answered Eiji, "He betrayed the Lin Kuei, or so he claims."

"You're in grave danger." warned Sub-Zero

Inside the square room, Ichiro sits in the spot he was before, and Eiji, Scorpion and Sub-Zero sit in front of Ichiro, facing him. Smoke's body is laying horizontal in front of Sub-Zero. Ninjas enter in, giving Scorpion and Sub-Zero a small brown bowel of wine.

"So," said Ichiro, "you want to help us?"

"I will," answered Sub-Zero, "on the condition you protect my friend's body."

"Understood. Tell us about why you're here. Why are the Lin Kuei here, and why do they care about Scorpion's kunai?"

"I honestly don't know why. My efforts were more focused on my friend. I think he was the one that tried to enter in your base, but I guess he was manipulated by that priest, since. He's a demon."

"A dead demon?" said Scorpion in a puzzled tone.

"When Smoke, Tomas, was a young boy, he was a sacrifice for a demon. When he was killed, he came back to life. Nothing changed in his personality, he just gained smoke powers. It's why I'm bringing the body with me. I'm hoping there's a way to bring him back… Do you happen to be enemies of the organization NESTS?"

"No," answered Ichiro, "why?"

"The Lin Kuei and NESTS recently formed an allegiance."

"Who are NESTS?" asked Scorpion

"NESTS," explained Eiji, "are a criminal organization dealing with clones. Not too long ago, about a few months. Clones of the movie star Johnny Cage have been found, attempting a robbery at a chem lab. One of their bases is found in Japan, I believe in Nagasaki."

"If it's an order from NESTS," wondered Sub-Zero, "this be bad… Scorpion, did Hades mention which Sub-Zero you must look for?"

"No," answered Scorpion, "but I assume it's the one from my time."

"Shit, this is as bad as I thought."

"What's the problem?" asked Eiji

"They might be looking for my brother's corpse. He was once Sub-Zero and, well… He might the greatest warrior of all time. Greater than the Three Treasures, and Rayden..."

"Don't you mean Raijin?" wondered Scorpion

"No, it's Rayden." answered Eiji, "He's kind of like Orochi. You know how Orochi needs a vessel to roam freely on earth?"

"Yeah."

"Well, Rayden is the vessel for Raijin."

"Ah, I see."

"Continue Sub-Zero." requested Ichiro "What makes your brother so powerful?"

"Well," continued Sub-Zero, "nine years ago, my brother had a request from a worshiper of the corrupted Shinnok. The mission was to obtain an ancient amulet, said that gives Shinnok his powers. He didn't believe in Shinnok, nothing in the texts of Shinto or Ancient Greek lore ever mentions him. He thought he had to steal an artifact from a museum for some nut job with a lot of money. Anyway, he successfully stole it from a museum, and gave the amulet to the worshiper. The worshiper hanged around at the Line Kuei base, having discussions with our former Grandmaster. I managed to witness the moment when my brother gave the amulet to the worshiper, and what happened… I'll never forget. The worshiper, essentially became Shinnok. He was vessel for him. He had powers that I can't comprehend. I don't know where to begin… Uh, for one, he became large monster, and like, he emitted energy, he manipulated our minds, even mine! He was… He was a god… I don't know how… I don't know how he did it. But my brother defeated him. He dodged every attack, he knew how to kill him… I guess, it was very fortunate that he was talented."

"What happened to him?"

"I believed; and I could be wrong, but I believe he committed suicide, he did it at a place where no one would think to fine. If he committed suicide I think he knew of Sektor's plan."

"Hm..." Ichiro fondles his beard, "If, what you say is true, this sounds like this could result in world domination. The Lin Kuei and the Kisaragi didn't really come in conflict or in contact since, well, 1863. It's very strange that they suddenly came here. The only reason for them wanting kunai would to summon Scorpion. You have a convincing case. Considering the power of the Cyberninja, I will utilize of separation and renovation. I will also cancel all current hits, and for you Eiji, I will assign you a mission."

"I am ready to serve, brother." said Eiji as he bows.

"I want you take part of an investigation. I want you to investigate on any information regarding NESTS and the Lin Kuei as to why they desire Scorpion's kunai. Also, considering Scorpion saved your life, I also want you to help him find the spectre of the old Sub-Zero. One more thing, I need you to house Scorpion, educate him about modern society. Japan in the 1860s isn't the same as Japan in 2001 after all."

"You're really putting a lot on me."

"This mission requires to use your head. This isn't the run of the mill assassination mission. I could of gotten killed, and you would be elected as the new leader of the Kisaragi, which I'm sorry to say, you aren't ready to lead. I'm doing this to help you, you're our best ninja in the clan, I'm preparing you when the time comes."

"Hm. I understand. I will not fail you!"

"Good, renovations shall start immediately."

12:00 PM. Outside of the base, all the ninjas are now in casual clothing, including Ichiro. Eiji isn't wearing his mask, wears a red sleeveless shirt, blue jeans, and black and white sneakers. Scorpion and Sub-Zero wear the exact same clothes: a tee shirt, blue jeans, and brown sneakers. Scorpion is wearing a yellow shirt, Sub-Zero wears a navy blue shirt. Scorpion is wearing sunglasses, has mess, long black hair, and an unkempt beard. Sub-Zero developed a scar on his right eye, and has combed back black hair. Scorpion and Sub-Zero are carrying duffel bags, Eiji carries a small briefcase.

"Scorpion," said Ichiro, "you may do the honors."

Scorpion drops his duffel bag, and spreads his arm, with his palms facing up. When he bends his fingers, the whole base is set on fire. Once the base is set a flame, everyone walks away. Eiji stares at it for a few seconds, and then walks away.


	4. Chapter 4

March 2nd, 2001. Beijing, China. 6:00 AM. In a large room, a long black table with seats on each side, and a projector at the front end of the table. Men in green suits and military badges are sitting at the seats, one of these men is Chi Haotian. A large projector screen, hanging from the ceiling, is at the end of the room, about five feet away from the table. Right of the projector screen, is a small desk and a black Dell Computer. Lin; still wearing his mask, is in a black business suit, red tie, and a white business shirt. He inserts a CD-ROM in the Dell's Disk Drive.

"Is Jiang Zemin coming to this meeting?" asked Lin as he makes several clicks on the mouse

"No," answered one of the men, "he needs to prepare his meeting with Vladimir Putin."

"Ah, right, it's the 32nd anniversary of the Sino-Soviet border conflict."

Light from projector lens emits, slowly getting brighter and brighter. The projected picture on the projector screen, is a portrait of a pale skin man, with long, gelled back black hair, no eyebrows red eyes, and wears the same mask Lin wears. From the portrait, he wears a black coat, with red and black horizontal stripes across his collar. Lin picks up the wired mouse, walks up next to the projector screen, and brings out a laser pointer from his pocket.

"This here," Lin stated as he points his laser at the portrait, "is Lon Ron, the current leader of the Hizoku, and a member of the Lin Kuei dynasty, as he is the son of the prior leader of the Hizoku, Lon Niu, who is the younger sister of the prior Lin-Kuei grandmaster, Sektor Shihong, hence why we refer to the Hizoku as the sister clan to the Lin Kuei. I have last witnessed Lon Ron since two days ago at twenty-two-thirty-four hours." Lin presses the left mouse button, and a screen cap of an email pops up next to Ron's portrait "The last spoken word from him was yesterday in the form of an email sent to us at o' five-thirty-nine. I didn't read it until o' seven-thirty-seven. We had our suspicions if it was really Ron. It was a mission statement, but it was very vague, and only assigned for Ron's son, Duo Lon." Lin presses the left mouse button again, and a portrait of Duo Lon takes the place of the portrait of Ron. "Due to Ron's absence, and the suspicious behavior of the Email, I take temporary lead of the Hizoku, and I suggested to Duo Lon to not take the mission. However, Duo Lon insisted that he take the mission, not as a mission, but an investigation. I was skeptical since if Ron was found dead, he would be made the successor, but regardless, I granted him permission to go to the specified destination, with five of our men. I have last seen Duo-Lon and our men since ten o' five, and last spoke with them since eleven-ten. The only member of the Lon Niu's lineage we have left is Ron's daughter Xiao Lon, who is too young to lead. It is clear, someone is trying to sabotage the Hizoku. Who is intending to do this, and what their motives are, I'm not certain. This is why I need your help, I request a search and investigation team in the Yunnan province to search for Duo Lon, Ron Lon, and information regarding them, or the Hizoku. Our men will assist yours, and I will try to convince the Lin Kuei to also assist. We will pay any funds necessary for the investigation."

"We decline." decided one of the men.

"What!? I understand our relation isn't necessarily pristine, but we have been serving you for years! After all on what we did for you! We fought with you on the Vietnam wars! The Johnson South Reef Skirmish! We had saved your leaders on numerous occasions! Yet you say no!? For fuck's sake, we're even going as far to pay for the investigation! Doesn't that tell you that we're being genuine? That we're actually concerned? How far we're willing to go just to figure out what's going on!?"

"We don't consider this a relevant issue for us," answered Chi Haotian "this is relevant to you, and maybe the Lin Kuei. We do not want to risk our men in your business."

"But this is relevant! We are a part of you! For all we know, Ron and Duo's disappearance could be a ploy against the government! Taking baby steps if you will."

"Emphasis on 'baby." The Hizoku and Lin Kuei are just pocket groups for menial tasks, not to mention, save us the money to use any military action. We have a personal saying of ours, the Lin Kuei is our Wal-Mart, while the Hizoku is a mere shanzai, a bootleg." Lin starts shaking in anger to the point where he grips his laser pointer so tight, it snaps in two. Lin takes a deep breath and calms down.

"Fine. I get it. I see. It's been sixty years now, we have been around, sixty years of paranoia. The Lin Kuei has been around longer, and did more for you, and you only treat them marginally better, because they have a stricter Chinese origin, and we have a bit of Taiwanese. None of this helped, that you didn't fund the Cyberninja. They obviously didn't fund it themselves. But, whatever, let's not change, let's keep being in fear. I'll still serve you, and fear you, while you fear us. Thank you for your time."

6:55 PM, the sky is a dim blue, filled with thin streaks of pink altocumulus clouds. At the rooftop of the building, several soldiers of the People's Liberation Army Ground Force, have a pink tint when facing the sun, have thick shadows. Three of them surround a helipad, the rest them are at the edges of the building. A black Bell 204 helicopter descends on the helipad. Lin, wearing a black wide brim fedora, black aviator sunglasses, and a black scarf where his long ponytail is tucked under, approaches the helicopter. When the copter lands, Lin enters in, and the pilot is an inhuman looking man, with extraordinarily large muscles, with the most recognizable feature of him, is his elongated forehead, that's the twice the size of his head, with a Yin Yang tattoo on top of it. The helix parts of his ear are naturally pulled downward, has turquoise eyes, a beard that's just across his jaw and chin, a long braided ponytail and sideburns that connect to his beard. He wears a black tank top with six orange dots, black nakali pants, long white socks, and black Tai Chi shoes.

"How did it go?" asked the inhuman man. His voice is rough, but calmer than expected.

"As expected Sai!" aggressively answered Lin. Lin takes a seat, yanks off his scarf, tosses his sunglasses outside, and slams the door shut. Lin closes his eyes and sighs. Sai starts getting the helicopter to ascend off the ground.

"Lin. Me, Luan, and Chat, always wanted you as a leader." Sai moves the helicopter forward.

"I have to respect the order of the clan's principals. Plus I view you as an equal."

"My head maybe big, but I am not charismatic. I may be big, but I'm not as strong as Luan. I think it goes without saying who's the prettier between the two of us."

"Regardless, we still can't give up. Plus, Xiao Lon is still alive, and if Ron and Duo are confirmed dead, she will take my place in two years." Lin looks at the fuel gauge and sees that it's on the letter E. "Do we need to refuel Sai?"

"That's inaccurate. This is a heavily modified model. This baby can go just about anywhere in China."

"That's impressive, but is it strong enough to go to the mountains in Heilongjiang?"

"Ah, we're heading to the Lin Kuei headquarters! For a normal person, it would be tricky. The winds can be a bit rough, but, I'm me."

"Excellent… They're honestly our last hope."

8:02 AM, Heilongjiang, China. In a dark room, with the only light is a large wide screen monitor, that's about 12 feet wide, 6 feet tall. A red Cyberninja sits with glowing cyan eyes, is sitting on a leather padded swivel chair, staring at the large screen. The screen shows a large 4:3 recording, of the burning Aokigahara forest, with Scorpion taking off his mask burning the camera. Smaller recordings across the bottom of the screen are surveillance footage that updates every 15 seconds. Right to the recording are a list of emails, above that, is the current time. Left of the recording are is a horizontal bar graph titled "Cyrax Statistics" with the labels are titled: Oxygen Status, Energy Amount, Oil Fuel Amount, Soul Containment, Articulation Quality, and Organic Body Quality. Above this, tells the temperature and weather. They Cyrax statistics are in line with the footage, when Scorpion sets him ablaze, all the horizontal bars disappear, but the Soul Containment, which is full, however, the Oxygen is very small.

"Sektor Li," said a monotone recorded voice in the red Cyberninja's head, "an unidentified helicopter is approaching our base."

"Can you identify who is in the helicopter?" asked Sektor

"The men in the helicopter, are identified as, Situ Sai, and, Wong Lin."

"Alright, just hold fire. I'll handle this."

Outside, Is a wide area, where the ground is covered in snow, all surrounded by a natural rocky wall, that has conical-like formations. At one end of the wide area, is a pagoda, three stories high. With long brown octagonal roofs and gray cracked walls. In front of the pagoda, is a statue of a young man in Qing Dynasty clothing, holding a scroll in one hand and a knife on another. The statue is between two incense burners, with smoke rapidly coming out of it going in the direction of the wind. As the helicopter slowly lands at the base, at the opposite end of the pagoda, silver Cyberninjas emerge from the snow and aim their wrists at the helicopter. Sektor walks out the front door of the pagoda and sees the helicopter landing. Sektor runs up to it waving his arms horizontally.

" **I SAID HOLD FIRE!** "shouted Sektor, trying to shout over the sound of the helicopter, " **HOLD FIRE!** "

The silver Cyberninjas lower their arms. The helicopter lands on the ground, causing bits of snow hitting Sektor. The engine is turned off, and Lin and Sai exit out the helicopter. Lin is trying to keep a hold of his hat as the wind is pushing it, and Sai has his arms covering his waist and belly, shivering.

"You didn't tell me you would be coming here."

"It's urgent." said Lin, "Your cousin, Ron, is missing, as well as his son and some of our men. I discussed it with the People's Liberation Army, asking them for help. But they declined."

"I see." Sektor has his hand on his jaw. "Typical of them. I would be willing to help, but I have a recent set of problems myself. As much as I am willing to help, I'm afraid I might not be much of help considering my predicament. As a matter of fact, I need your help, more than you need mine. Come." Sektor walks towards the Pagoda. "You two are human, I think we should discuss matters inside." Lin walks up next to Sektor, and Sai follows behind.

"Li, how do you feel about our government? We served them for so many years. They give us far too much disrespect!"

"They pay us. That's all I care about."

"But, they didn't fund the Cyberninja project? Rumor has it, that you're getting funds from the EU. Perhaps as a way to take out China."

"We are funded by the Jamaican Defense Force."

"Does the government know about this?"

"Yes, I even showed them the transaction statements."

"Well, why do they fear you then? In fact, why the hell do they fear Jamaica?"

"They probably think that Jamaica is a proxy for America."

The three enter in the pagoda. Nothing is inside of it, just wooden floor, note even a staircase that leads up to the next floor. Sektor flips open a lid on his wrist which has a numerical pad. Sektor presses some buttons on it, and the wooden floor slowly descends. As they descend two floors down. The entrances to a floor are two steel doors. Sektor pushes one of the two aside, letting Lin and Sai go in first. The room is a wide hallway with seven doors, three on each side, and one in the center. The room's light comes from fluorescent lanterns that are hanging from the ceiling, with no effort hiding the wires hanging around the walls like vines. The walls are black stone, the floor is flat concrete, and the floors being made of flat concrete, and the doors are made of wood, with steel door knobs. Sektor leads them to the first door to their right. The three doors on the right comprise of a single large room. Inside is a large round table with plastic swivel chairs. There's a long counter, almost like the room is a miniature kitchen for an office, but on the counters are several land-line telephones, fax machines, printers, and scanners. Near the counter, are two large shelves of LAN switches, where the wires go through the walls. The LAN switches make faint blinking lights, and generate an ambiance of electrical static, hisses, and creaking noises. Sektor takes a seat at the round table, a silver Cyberninja enters the room, handing a briefcase to Sektor, and then leaves.

"Man," commented Sai, "you guys changed." Lin sits next to Sektor

"I feel our change perfectly represents the Lin Kuei's modern philosophy, perfectly." replied Sektor Sai sits next to Lin.

"Your father must be proud." assumed Lin

"Actually, he would rather be on the contrary."

"Why? The reason why Sektor Niu, well, uh, Lon Niu, like, the reason she formed the Hizoku was because she didn't agree with the Lin Kuei's approach to more technology. Plus, you still follow the tradition of patricide. You proved you're mightier than your father."

"I didn't kill my father entirely for that reason. You see, The Hizoku feel as though it's evolution of assassin methods should be from more of the human body. I feel the next stage of evolution is digital. I respect the Hizoku philosophy, but you're still mortals. Through cybernetic technology, we transfer ourselves into hardware and software. As long as we satisfy Moore's Law, we're immortals, until of course, we're hit by an exploding Super Nova or something along those lines. But to answer the question, as to why, my father is against my ideas of the Cyberninjas, is because he just finds the idea ridiculous. If we can live in a world where SmashTV! Exists where giant men in tanks are allowed to kill contestants! If can live in a world, where a Japanese Pop singer, theorized that she's the descendant of the Goddess Athena, can fight against alien invaders, I don't think my idea is out of line. Isn't it? So, I proved my might, the might of my ideals, and it crowned me Grandmaster of the Lin Kuei."

"Well, not to defend Shihong was never known to have the best foresight. But I read some articles about this thing this called Wi-Fi. It's only in Apple's iBook at the moment, but they intend to bring that technology over onto computers. If you implement Wi-Fi into your Cyberninjas, don't you fear that you might get hacked?"

"Well of course. I knew about Wi-Fi since the early nineties. Of course, the Cyberninjas aren't perfect by any means. Cybernetic technology itself needs to evolve. Do you remember how cellphones looked about seven years ago?"

"Yeah. What about it?"

"Have you noticed a trend with cell phones? They have gotten smaller. Cell phones are made to be portable, and each year they get to their goal, more and more."

"Honestly," commented said Sai, "I hate that. I haven't changed my phone in five years because the Numpad is too small for me. But I get your point, I'm not the average man" Sai pokes his own head, "obviously."

"Anyway," said Lin "we're getting off task. You said your situation is worse than ours to the point you need our help. What's going on with you and the Lin Kuei."

"Well," Sektor starts explaining as he opens his briefcase, "It's a few things really. Kuai Liang, Bi-Han's younger half-brother, and the current Sub-Zero, has recently run off, as he didn't want to become a Cyberninja." Sektor takes out a large folder from the briefcase. He takes out a piece of xerox paper that contains a picture of Kuai Liang without his mask, and his biography.

"I take it," assumed Sai, "he fears he'll lose his humanity if he becomes one."

"Well, he would of. I know, it's inhumane, but it's all temporary. Many people are against the idea of becoming cyborgs. I'll give them their free will back once our government realizes the potential. But anyway, Sub-Zero went missing. I know where Sub-Zero is, but I'll get to that in a second. A client came to us and wanted us to retrieve a kunai from a ninja clan known as the Kisaragi. This kunai was wielded by a legendary ninja known as Scorpion. The same Scorpion that fought against one of our Sub-Zero's in the past."

"Who was the client?" asked Lin

"Just some rich otaku. He tried to buy the kunai from the Kisaragi's in the past, but he sent us to take it from them. Anyway, I sent in Smoke to retrieve it, but his connection. Apparently, he was manipulated by some mage, and the whole forest is demonic. This is where Sub-Zero comes into play. You see, our cameras aren't in our eyes, they're hidden within our foreheads, and in the back of our heads." Sektor takes out a blurry picture of the Aokigahara forest, which contains Sub-Zero hiding in a bush. I sent in six of our men to capture Sub-Zero, and two other men along with Cyrax into another section of the forest. Nothing demonic happened to Cyrax along his way to the base. One of the clan's best men, Eiji Kisaragi, fought Cyrax. The most recent picture I have of him was when was in the King of Fighters tournament in 1995." Sektor hands Lin a profile of Eiji. "The two fought each other, Cyrax was winning, until… They summoned the ghost, or demon, of Scorpion." Sektor hands them a picture of Scorpion in the forest, and a profile containing an ink portrait of Scorpion. "Also known as Hanzo Hasashi, a descendant of Hanzo Hattori. He's clearly trying to defend the Kisaragi, and, well..." Sektor hands them a picture of Scorpion with a flaming skull, breathing fire. "What an ally they have. I lost Smoke, I lost Cyrax, I lost Sub-Zero. The only other member I have left is Frost. Considering, Sub-Zero, Scorpion, and the Kisaragi share the same enemy. I fear that they're going to form an alliance." Lin looks at the pictures and profiles for a few seconds.

"I understand. You're not kidding about your situation."

"Usually, if the Lin Kuei was in a better order, I would ask for money in order for me to help you. But in this case, money isn't good enough. Would you be willing to do a few tasks for me?"

"That depends. But I know where this is going."

"What I want is Sub-Zero, I want him alive! As a matter of fact, I also want Scorpion. He'd make a great adversary for the Lin Kuei. Retrieve them both for me, and I will be in your debt. I will appreciate it even more if you can assassinate Eiji Kisaragi. Leave Ichiro Kisaragi to me, I want to kill him personally. Do we have a deal?"  
"Hey," Sai whispered in Lin's ears, "do we really have to his dirty work?"

"He's asking us to do a pretty simple task" Lin whispered back, "Plus, it's obvious he can't do much. Our request is pretty dangerous." Lin stops whispering and looks directly at Sektor, "We will do it. It's a deal" Lin and Sektor shake hands. Sektor leads the two back to the elevator. Sektor stays in the hallway. "When I head back to base. I'll send a few of my men in Japan."

"Very well, I wish you luck." Sektor types on his Numpad on his wrist, making the elevator ascend.

When Lin and Sai are gone, a man from the end of the hall approaches Sektor. The man is Caucasian, with extremely long and wavy blonde hair, pale skin, and an effeminate face. He dawns a large dark purple cape, covering most of his body, and white and golden shoes.

"They trust me Mr. Igniz" said Sektor to the effeminate man.

"Perfect." said Igniz, "With Scorpion resurrected, and the Hizoku in our hands. Everything is going exactly as planned. You did a great service for NESTS Mister Sektor. Now… The only thing we need is Bi Han's body, and we will become invincible..."

12:17 PM. Numazu, Shizuoka, Japan. Scorpion looking out a window in an apartment, seeing the cars driving by, the buildings, the people walking, especially starring at business men and women talking on their cell phones, kids playing their Game Boy Colors.

"I'm still amazed that this is Japan." admired Scorpion. He turns around to Eiji sitting on his couch watching TV. "Where the hell is Sub-Zero!? He's supposed to be an hour ago! Doesn't he know that his life is on the line!?"

"Beats the hell out of me man." Eiji responded.

 _"Yesterday,"_ said the news lady from the Television, _"twenty-five firemen are missing since yesterday when trying to take out the flames in the Aokigahara forest. Their mysterious disappearances are led to believe by many locals that spirits or demons have taken them away. The Aokigahara forest is known for its supernatural urban legends, especially when it was once a place for ritualistic suicide. However, investigators have yet to find any bodies within the forest."_

"You know," said Scorpion as he continues to look out at the window, "I wish my legacy would have continued. Have the luxury of having efficient travel, like airplanes, cars, or listen to their music on miniature devices, experience, these, video games. You know?" Suddenly, there's a knocking at the front door. Eiji gets and opens the front door seeing Sub-Zero.

"Where the hell have you been?" asked Eiji

"Remembered when I said I was fine sleeping in an alleyway last night?" asked Sub-Zero

"Uh, yeah?"

"WELL, I got arrested for loitering." Scorpion turns around.

"Well since you're here!" stated Scorpion, "We can discuss our plans."

"Man, I need to take a shower first."

"We can discuss it in there."

"Wait, what?"

"What? What's wrong with discussing matters in a shower?"

"Uh, Scorpion," said Eiji, "That's a thing that homosexuals do."

"There is nothing homosexual about it! My son bathes me, I bathe my father and grandfather all the time! Did the Americans ruin showering?"

"FINE!" shouted Sub-Zero, "Let's discuss our plans now."

"GOOD! Anyway, we decided that we should infiltrate the Lin Kuei headquarters. Kill Sektor Li, and find any information that can lead us to NESTS. We both agree that the three of us isn't enough. My demonic powers are weakened when out of the Aokigahara Forest, so I am a bit more vulnerable. My idea is that we get the Shiranui clan to help us. Their clan leader is a relative. They could likely help us.

"There's just one problem," said Eiji, "the Kisaragi and Shiranui don't like each other. We're allies, but it's more like, 'don't bother us and we won't bother you' sorta relation."

"Sounds kinda like the Lin Kuei and Hizoku." commented Sub-Zero

"The who?"

"Just an assassin clan in China."

"Well, my idea is that we hire the Black Dragon. They're known to be a tech savvy gang. It would be a good retaliation against the Cyberninjas. You got any ideas?"

"Hm… I suggest we bring both. The Lin Kuei and Hizoku are a brother-sister clan. The Lin Kuei could ask for the Hizoku as backup, and they're very lethal. Utilizing the powers of poison to kill their enemies. I heard their master, Lon Ron, can generate hallucinations against his foes."

"I don't see a problem with this plan." said Scorpion

"Let's just hope to god the Shiranui and Black Dragon don't hold a vendetta against eachother." said Eiji.

"Well, we pay them double the amount." suggested Sub-Zero

"But where are we going to get the money?"

1:30 PM. Numazu Shinkin Bank.

" **GET THE MONEY OUT NOW!"** shouted Sub-Zero in a ski mask while aiming a Glock at a lady clerk behind the counter, while also carrying a black garbage bag.

In the bank, everyone is in business suits and are ducking down as Eiji and Scorpion; who are also wearing ski masks, carry AK-47s, pointing them at people.

"THIS THING HAS BULLETS!" shouted Scorpion as he points his AK-47

"Yeah, uh, they know."

The clerk quickly gets wads of Yen from the drawers behind her and puts it in the bag. Near the lady clerk, is a male clerk, who opens a hatch that's under the counter, which reveals a red button. As the clerk is about to press the red button, Eiji teleports behind the clerk aiming his AK-47 at his back and waves his finger. The clerk lady starts to whimper as she's putting yen in the bag, and suddenly the sounds of police sirens can be heard outside. Eiji and Scorpion teleport out. Sub-Zero looks around, raising an eyebrow, shrugging, then suddenly Scorpion and Eiji teleport back, grab Sub-Zero's shoulders, and all three teleport out. The three are at a top of a tall building at the other side of the bank, seeing police cars parked outside the bank, and three officers entering in. The three lay down on the chests, peaking at the bank, and then turn their bodies around, taking off their ski masks, and see a man right in front of them, a man in a Hizoku uniform, except he has skullcap bandana with holes all over it.

"I've been looking for you Kuai Liang." said the Hizoku member. The three stand up.

"How do you know my name _Hizoku_?" asked Sub-Zero. The Hizoku member turns around, showing that the skullcap bandana is covering his eyes, showing off his squished nose, and large exposed razor-sharp teeth. "Huh, tarkatan. Rare creatures. Shame I got to kill one."

"All I ask, is you to submit to the Lin Kuei. That goes for Scorpion as well. You two would make fine assets for the clan. Makes me wish you were a part of the Hizoku."

"And what about me!?" asked Eiji

"Nobody gives a shit."

A suddenly a flurry of spikes come out of the Tarkatan's body. Sub-Zero and Eiji jump out of the way. The spikes hit Scorpion, but Scorpion doesn't react, and the spikes sink in Scorpion's body. Flames burst around Scorpion, which only last a second, and when the flames are gone, Scorpion is in his ninja outfit. Scorpion sets his palm back, and a kunai starts emerging out of his flesh. Eiji sees a police copter in the air. Eiji grabs the bag of money, holds on to Sub-Zero's shoulder and teleports away. The Tarkatan starts shooting out spikes from his chest at Scorpion. Scorpion extends his out his kunai, which is connected to a thick black string, and starts deflecting the attack, by swinging his kunai around, and break the spikes. Scorpion lunges out his kunai towards the Tarkatan's face.

The Tarkatan grabs the kunai by quickly summoning two thin and long blades from his middle knuckles. The Tarkatan swings his arms to the side, pulling Scorpion into the ground. As the Tarkatan continues to hold on to the kunai, the kunai starts rotating a bit, opens its mouth. The kunai lunges into the wrist biting into the Tarkatan's wrist. The Tarkatan yells in pain, trying to pull the kunai out, but he couldn't. The kunai starts drilling into the Tarkatan's wrist. Scorpion stands up and pulls the Tarkatan toward him.

" **GET OVER HERE!** "

As Scorpion is pulling over the Tarkatan, the Tarkatan lifts up his legs, and starts rolling into a ball, and grows spikes all over his body. The tarkatan starts rolling onto Scorpion's stomach, causing a massive amount of dark red blood to pour out. Eiji and Sub-Zero are at the top floor of the building Scorpion and the Tarkatan are in, is an office, with many desks, flat walls, and computers. There is a man sitting at one of the desks reading a newspaper.

"Are you Kuai Liang?" asked the man

"How do you know!?" shouted Sub-Zero.

The man puts down his newspaper revealing to be a tall, slender man, with a blonde streak across his hair, small eyebrows, a tight black, turtleneck tee shirt, black business pants, brown suit shoes, and black fingerless gloves.

"OH, just asking."

"It's time to stop answering when people say your name!" yelled Eiji as he punches Sub-Zero. He stares at the man, "Ryuuji Yamazaki. One of the most wanted criminals in all of Japan. How did you escape!?"

"That Tarkatan got me out and hired me to capture this, Kuai Liang chink. He recommends me to kill you."

Yamazaki gets up from his seat and sticks his tongue out. Sub-Zero thrusts both his palms out shooting an ice blast at Yamazaki. However, Yamazaki thrusts his arm up, deflects the blast, now changing direction. Sub-Zero dodges the blast by jumping out of the way. Sub-Zero touches his cheek, noticing it's bleeding. He looks straight at Yamazaki, noticing that Yamazaki is swinging his arm like like it's swinging on its own. Eiji is crawling under the desks slowly and silent. Any binders or papers or in the way Eiji tries to get his head under them.  
"Let me ask you something. A snake has six senses. What do you think the sixth one is?" Sub-Zero doesn't respond, "snakes can sense heat."

Eiji crawls up near Sub-Zero's right leg, and suddenly, Yamazaki arm quickly extends and became seemingly thin like a whip hitting Eiji. When hit, Eiji turns into a log, pushing the desk up a bit. Suddenly Eiji immediately appeared standing left of Yamazaki stabbing him in the waist with his knife. Yamazaki shrieks in pain and starts laughing as the wound starts to regenerate around the knife. Yamazaki slaps Eiji with the back of his palm with great force, pushing Eiji to the almost to the side of the room. Yamazaki walks up to Eiji, grabs his throat, and tosses him to the desks, causing a row of the collapses, with papers, desk supplies, and computers falling down. Eiji is tangled in wires moving his body to his right, squinting his eyes as he rubs his back. Yamazaki throws Eiji's knife at Eiji, causing Eiji quickly turn his body to the right successfully dodging it. Yamazaki looks to where Sub-Zero is standing and notices he's gone.

"Hey," spoke Sub-Zero's voice

Yamazaki turns around and sees Sub-Zero. Yamazaki quickly brings out his own knife lunges at him. Sub-Zero hops to the side and quickly created an ice replica of himself. Yamazaki plunges the knife in the replica, shatter the structure, Yamazaki gets frozen in Ice. Eiji gets up and starts rapidly shooting kunais at Yamazaki's frozen body mostly on his chest, one on his forehead, two on his right cheek. Yamazaki breaks out of the ice and looks at his watch. The police helicopter hovers around the building at the same floor, behind Yamazaki.

"Well," said Yamazaki, "as fun as this is, Sopranos is on. Too damn good."

Yamazaki jumps out of the window behind him, and latches on to the helicopter. Yamazaki sinks his fingers on the pilot's door and tossing it open. Yamazaki grabs the Pilot's neck by biting on his tech and tosses him out. Yamazaki takes a seat, takes a kunai from his forehead, slits the cop next to him's throat, and flies away from the building.

"What an asshole." Sub-Zero commented. Eiji walks up next to him.

"We should probably check on Scorpion shouldn't we?" suggested Eiji

"He's a Demon! What's the worst that could happen!"

Back to the top of the building, the Tarkatan's rolling pushes Scorpion off the ledge of the building. Scorpion falls first, sliding upside down on the glass surface, with him now being about ten inches away from the Tarkatan. When the Tarkatan starts sliding on the glass, starts rolling in reverse, causing shards of glass to hit Scorpion, giving him a few cuts. Scorpion squints his eyes, as some of the glass hits his face. Scorpion with a look of anger and teleports to a building at the other side that has more concrete, taking the Tarkatan with him, lifting his arms up slamming The Tarkatan to the building's wall. Scorpion, with his front body laying against the building, pushes legs up, getting his feet flat on the building's surface and leaps off of it teleporting back to the previous building, but at a corner of at a steel corner. Scorpion rotates his body forward, extending his black string a bit, and thrusts arms forward, slamming the Tarkatan at the steel corner. The Tarkatan gets out of the ball formation, with his back against the corner. Scorpion uses his black string to quickly get closer to The Tarkatan and grab his shoulders. Scorpion has his legs to the sides of the Tarkatan's waist, and Scorpion pushes himself off the building. As Scorpion falls, he pushes his legs up, causing Scorpion to dive with his head more downward, and while he does this, he thrusts his arms back, releasing his fingers from the Tarkatan's body, trying to toss him. However, spikes popped out of the Tarkatan's shoulder, stabbing through Scorpion's hands. the Tarkatan grabs Scorpion's neck and has spikes summoned from his palms. Scorpion starts choking and lifts his mask a bit, with flames coming out of it. The flames hit the Tarkatan's fingers, causing the Tarkatan to shout in pain briefly, and causing the spikes to go back in the Tarkatan's body, thus, letting go of Scorpion. The Tarkatan, falls down screaming, landing face first on an ongoing firetruck. Scorpion is about fifteen stories down, of the thirty story building, summons his stringed kunai up at the top of the building, with the kunai breaking through the window. Sub-Zero and Eiji noticed it, seeing the kunai at the other side of the room. The kunai opens its mouth bits onto the floor. Scorpion stops falling and starts ascending upward with his stringed-Kublai, while also climbing on the thick string. Sub-Zero and Eiji pull the string in, taking about one minute for Sub-Zero to get to the top floor. Sub-Zero and Eiji grab both of Scorpion's arms, helping him get in.

"So," said Scorpion as he pants, "you guy still have the money?"

"Yeah," answered Eiji

"Hey," said Sub-Zero, "that Tarkatan couldn't possibly kill you right?"

"I can die." answered Scorpion "Chop my head off, stab me in the heart, or lack of oxygen. I will be sent back to hell."

"I see… Well." Sub-Zero looks down at the window and notice the police are entering the building. "We need to get the fuck out of here." Scorpion and Eiji nod, and hold on to Sub-Zero's shoulders, and teleport out.

March 3rd, 2001. Tokyo, Japan. 1:15 AM. In a dimly lit bar small bar, there are four sets of tables with two seats by the large front windows, and a bar stand shelves of drinks behind it. A bartender is behind the bar stand wiping glasses, and a Caucasian man with a single glowing red eye sits at the bar stand with a small glass of liquor. The man has black crew cut hair with a bit of a with a bit of a widow's peak, a goatee connected to his sideburns, a metallic surface around his right eye. He wears a vest that's black on the outside, red on the inside, a large shark tooth necklace, black dress pants, black boots, and black fingerless leather gloves. The man takes a sip of his drink, and then the Nokia tune chimes from his left pocket. The man takes out his Nokia 3310 cellphone from his left pocket and raises a brow seeing the number he doesn't recognize. He presses the call button and puts it over his ear.

"Donata desuka?" asked the man in an annoyed tone.

"Kisaragi." answered Eiji from the phone. "Kano. Would you be willing to do a dangerous task for us, say, for about one billion yen?"

"One billion yen? Ah, fuck off! I know you ninjas are crafty, but giving me a fucking break."

"Oh trust me. I have it. The choice of location is yours for our meeting."

"Hmm… What kind of dangerous task are we speaking of here?"

"It involves NESTS. We're planning on sabotaging its subsidiaries in China."

"Well shit. No wonder why you're paying us one billion yen. You're one of those teleporting fuckers that were robbing banks all over Numazu weren't you?" Eiji chuckles,

"Yeah, that's us."

"Well. I'll have to talk about with my posse. NESTS isn't like run- of-the-mill Yakuza, they're like a damn military. Might pass the standards for most of the Black Dragon."

"I understand." Eiji hangs up.

Kano puts his phone back in his pocket, and heads out of the bar, and at the middle of the road sees three dead bodies, bloodied and disfigured. Kano walks up to them, crouching down. The red light from Kano's eye overs over one of the bodies, and on the chest belly, there are tire thick tire tracks. In the distance, the sirens of a fire truck can be heard.


End file.
